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* Annotated by: Minqing Hu and Bing Liu, 2004.
*		Department of Computer Sicence
*               University of Illinois at Chicago              
*
* Product name: Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra 40GB
* Review Source: amazon.com
*
* See Readme.txt to find the meaning of each symbol. 
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 a quick update to the new zen nx ? 
this is an edited review , now that i have had time to use the device . 
while , there are flaws with the machine , the xtra gets five stars because of its affordability . 
it is the most bang-for-the-buck out there . 
like it 's predecessor , the quickly revised nx , this player boasts a decent size and weight , a relatively-intuitive navigational system that categorizes based on id3 tags , and excellent sound ( widely known to be better than ipod - not surprising considering the number of years creative has been in the audio peripheral business ) . 
the xtra improves upon the zen nx with a larger , now-blue backlit screen , which is infinitely better . 
further , the xtra doubles the maximum filecount capacity to 16000 mp3 . 
this is especially useful for those who listen mostly to pop music and store all those short ditties . 
when compared to the ipod the zen xtra falls short , but only by a bit . 
yes the ipod is smaller , but not $ 200 worth , which is the premium you 'll pay for an equivalent capacity model . 
yes , the ipod looks in tune with the carefully articulated urban-hipster persona thats become popular as of late , but sure-as-hell is n't worth the $ 200 premium ( unless you are just dying to match your music player with that volkswagen beetle and urban outfitters wardrobe ) . 
for me , i 'll save that cash for another purchase . 
 get this player ! 
before i decided to get this player , i did my research . 
i looked up the ipod , the dell jukebox , and the samsung napster player . 
i chose this one because from what i read , it was the best deal for the money . 
another reason i got it is because you can put wma files on it . 
that takes up half the space of mp3 's . 
that 's important because i have a lot of music . 
the software is great . 
you can sort your music by artist , title , album , or genre , and you can play music based on those categories . 
transfering is easy , the software makes everythig pretty easy . 
even the battery life is great - it advertises 14 hours , it 's actually a little less but still good . 
only 1 problem , no accessories ... yet . 
i hope it 's because it 's new and they are not out yet , but being without a remote is hard . 
they player 's interface itself is also very easy to use . 
can 't complain and i recommend it over all the other players , just hope that remote will come out soon . 
get it , it 's woth every penny ! ! 
 kick a player 
i was a little concerned to be the black sheep buying this player instead of the incredibly overpriced apple i-pod . 
i 've had it for a week now , do n't regret the purchase one bit , and i never leave home without it . 
if you have any doubts about this player , well do n't . 
pros : 
software is easy to use ( although redhat software is better , but costs money ) 
much cheaper than i-pod good looking player ( beautiful blue back-lit screen ) if you 've read about the player , some have complained about the lack of a viewing hole for the face when the case is on , but this is good because the face does n't get damaged / scratched fast transfer rate 
no issues as of yet 
cons : 
you 're going to need to buy new headphones , the stock ones suck 
hopefully , this player will out sell the ridculously over-hyped i-pod . 
if you want to be a poser and follow the herd , mooooooh , then buy the i-pod . 
otherwise , be smart , save the cash . 
 the sound is the thing ! 
for me the sound of the music is what is important . 
the zen xtra sounds great with good headphone and well recored mp3s . 
navigation is a bit tricky and takes getting used to but the included pdf instructions cover the operation pretty well . 
at 8 ounces it is pretty light but not as light as the ipod . 
the battery is replaceable ( a real plus ) and there is a leather case ( another real plus ) . 
i suppose that you could jog with it but it seems to be made for the enjoyment of music . 
so far the software for the pc works easily . 
by the way , it looks nice also . 
 an ipod killer : 
this thing kicks mighty apple butt ! 
i would have given this thing 4.5 stars but since i can 't , i 'll be sweet and give it the full 5 stars . 
it 's worth it . 
i personally do n't like apple or their business practices ( screwing resellers , customers and employees left and right ) so i shopped around for something else . 
after finally stumbling upon this zen nx player , i knew i had found what i was looking for . 
my two main requirements were longer battery life and lower price : i found both . 
this thing lasted well over 14 hours when i played it straight for the first time . 
the zen nx is $ 100 cheaper than the ipod of the same size , so you have to wonder just how much apple 's markup is anyway ! 
the sound is excellent , but a tip : get a real pair of headphones . 
you wo n't appreciate the quality this thing has to offer unless you are using a good set of cans. 
the controls are on the side instead of on the front , which i like , because that 's where my thumb is when i hold the thing ! 
the scroll wheel is a big improvement over the ipod touchpad . 
it could be a little bit bigger , but it 's easy to get used to . 
the screen may be a little smaller , but it is very readable and does n't come in the overused blue . 
it does n't have firewire , not a real complaint since most windows users do n't generally have firewire cards themselves . 
( i would have appreciated having a firewire plug , however ) 
the included leather pouch is a big plus : it actually protects the unit well , something a lot of ' carrying cases ' fail to do with other audio devices . 
other plusses : changable battery , loads of presets for environments , decent construction , still quite small and light despite being slightly bigger than an ipod . 
( did i mention you can actually change the battery ? hello ? apple ? are you listening ? ) 
i probably would have liked to have a player in something other than silver / metallic ... like the battery adapters on their usb thumbdrive ( muvo nx ) mp3 player models . 
since the front plate is removable to access the battery compartment , aftermarket alternate covers would not be difficult or expensive to make . 
overall : small , sounds great , and less expensive than apple 's overpriced ipod ! 
( batteries last longer too ! ) 
 way better than a i-pod ! 
i shopped around for a month looking for a good mp3 player , and all i heard was how good the i-pod was . 
after messing with it at a store i noticed how bad the i-pod was . 
it was marked up increadably high compared to other models ( almost $ 500 for a 30gb ) , and theres was nothing about it that made it worth that much money . 
the creative labs zen xtra has all the features the i-pod has and if you get if from amazon your only going to pay $ 300 for this great player . 
i 've had it for about 2 weeks and it 's the best player i 've seen , and used , ever . 
the music is easy to get to ( all of the menus are easy to understand despite what alot of i-pod owners say ) and if you know how to search for an artist by name online , then you can do the same with the zen . 
the screen is very easy to read and the blue light is bright enough to read at night , but dim enough so it does n't blind you when you stare too long . 
all in all this a great player that blows the i-pod away , with easy to use and understand features , software that is simple to understand and use , and a great sound ( which is all that matters in a mp3 player ) . 
just get some new headphones and your set . 
 great product for a windows computer . 
within 5 minutes i was able to transfer files . 
it 's a very intuitive program . 
i had no problems following their installation instructions . 
the menus are very easy to navigate . 
the only complaint i have is that when you push in the scroll wheel to select , you have to push straight in or it sticks . 
the other controls are all very easy to use . 
it has several play options , one of the best is an option to shuffle , based on all or a certain playlist . 
the only downside i see is that it does n't look like you can manage playlists from the nomad , it has to be done from the computer . 
unlike the ipod , this is fully windows compatible and can be used right out of the box . 
for ipod you have to buy a cable and it is n't compatible with all windows pcs. 
it also costs a lot less than the ipod . 
the earbuds that come with it are n't that bad . 
they 're pretty comfortable , stay in place and deliver a decent audio quality . 
this is a good deal for music and data storage . 
 the interfacing software is unacceptably bad . 
one thing i should note is that i have only had this product for one day , so there are many options i have not explored . 
the main problem with the nomad jukebox zen xtra 30 gb is the software . 
on my relatively new computer ( p4 with windows xp and usb 2.0 ) , the os complained about the installation of the drivers . 
despite the instructions insisting that the process was fairly automatic , i had to install the usb drivers and the nomad interface software manually . 
the interface software itself , which should be user-friendly , was anything but easy-to-use . 
with the nomad explorer software , songs should be drag-and-drop . 
i have not yet tried the cd-ripping program . 
the player itself has all sorts of problems . 
the face-plate , which pops out for the battery , pops open by itself every 10 minutes or so . 
the player hangs up on file transfer every once-in-a-while , prompting a reset . 
the scroll button is overly sensitive at times ; not sensitive enough at others . 
depressing the scroll button ( for selecting ) is not always responsive . 
the scroll bar problems make the task of creating playlists more frustrating . 
on the positive side , the sound of the player is pretty good , once you have everything configured . 
i have n't had time to really push this player to the limit , but audio aspects on the nomad are satisfactory , as should be expected from creative labs . 
overall , a very disappointing product . 
the setup process for the nomad is infuriating , and the interface with the player is sub-par . 
the player 's mechanics are also flawed . 
although the sound-quality is good , it takes more than good sound on a portable-mp 3 player to result in a good product . 
 great player . 
i was trying to decide whether or not i should go with the 40 gb ipod or this 30 gb zen xtra . 
when it came down to it , the price on this player is hard to beat . 
if you want the other accessories the ipod offer , maybe that 's where you should go .. . 
this is a great investment for someone like me who enjoys music and hates carrying multiple cds . 
i just transfered over some 40 cds and have plenty of space left for me . 
one beef is the scroll , it does n't work as well as i 'd like . 
other than that this thing is great ... 
enjoy ! 
 replaceable battery lets zennx keep running and running . 
zennx 's replaceable battery was the deciding factor in my purchase of zennx over ipod . 
all rechargeable batteries lose their holding power over time ( around 2 years ) . 
apple 's solution - pay apple another $ 400 + for a new ipod ( less a paltry discount ) . 
the zennx will keep running for the price of a replacement battery , just like any other battery-powered appliance . 
deficiencies with zennx are easily overcome with 3rd-party earphones ( $ 20 + ) and software ( $ 25 ). 
notmad by red chair software is an explorer-based program that enables simple drag-and-drop transfer of music files from pc to zennx . 
the blue-screen display in the zennx xtra model is an improvement , but the toggle switch is still tricky . 
zennx 's capacity / price ratio on the 30g model ( $ 10/gig ) ) trumps ipod 's 30g model ( $ 14/gig ). 
choosing zennx is a no-brainer when factoring in the cost of a new $ 400 + ipod every few years versus the $ 50 cost of replacing zennx 's rechargeable battery . 
zennx hopefully will gain market share and prompt arrogant apple to lower prices and enable consumers to replace the battery . 
update : apple recently announced that for $ 107 , it will replace the battery in ipods shipped to their factory . 
lithium ion rechargeable batteries are good for 300-500 rechargings , so battery lifespan will vary according to your usage . 
still , apple continues to squeeze dollars from consumers by not designing the battery to be replaceable . 
 terrific mp3 player , great price . 
i love my new nomad , its great ! 
now i dont have to lug around 80 cds if i dont know what i 'm going to want to listen to biking home . 
this thing , while looking pretty cool , is not as sexy as the ipod . 
for some this might be a problem , but for the price of a 30 gig ipod , you can get a 60gb nomad , the ipod simply pales in comparison . 
the software is very easy to use , and within 30 minutes of opening my box , i was out and about listening to any one of my 80 cds . 
the free ( i didnt know they still did that ) carrying case is really protective , and to me its the only accessory you need ( except good headphones ) . 
on the subject of headphones , this thing seems like a normal mp3 player when you use the headphones they give you in the box , but invest 30 dollars in a nice pair and the sound quality goes up through the roof ! 
if you want a sexy , cool , accessory-availible mp3 player , by all means , get an ipod for a hundred dollars more ( or one for the same price that holds 1/3 of the music ) . 
but if you want a great deal and a great mp3 player , get the nomad . 
best electronic i 've bought since i was born . 
flat out 
 impressed ! 
i just sold my archos 20gb jukebox recorder after not being satisfied with it 's slow loading & difficult navigation , not to mention it froze quite a bit . 
i was in search of a new item to take it 's place as my new mp3 player / harddrive . 
for an early christmas gift , i got a zen xtra 40 gb player . 
i refused to go for an ipod , i am not going to spend all that money just for the apple name and because it is " trendy " to have that player . 
this was the closest alternative and best buy for this type . 
after receiving my zen xtra 40gb mp3 player .. . 
i will just say this : 
i will never go back to my archos again ! ! 
so easy to set up , had some problems with my archos . 
stayed up all night trying to figure out that thing . 
just easily drag and drop files into the nomad explorer and from there you easily alter id tags and sort your music according to your liking , by artist , song title , genre , etc. 
not only is it functional and runs super smooth & fast , but it is also eye candy . 
very sleek & stylish as well as the screen options and visuals it has . 
the leather case it comes with is pretty nice , similar to a pda style case and does hold and protect it perfectly . 
all the buttons & neccessary lil ' gadgets are on the sides of the player which is nice for when you are holding it in the palm of your hand . 
the sound quality is also nice ... after i hooked up my sony headphones instead of those factory earbuds it comes with . 
lots of sound options , has an equalizer almost like winamp with the options . 
navigation is so smooth and finding files is a cinch . 
also navigating while playing music is a plus unlike my previous player . 
it was impossible to do so before . 
oh , and the screen saver feature is pretty sweet ^ _ ^ 
another plus in my book , no file limits ! 
i was limited to 999 files in a playlist with archos ' os , now i can have as many as i want . 
i have over 2000 files in my playlist at the moment and the random does a nice job mixing it up . 
i am quite happy having over 10 gigs of music stored on this baby as well as a few gigs of media files in the data folder . 
now i can transport files to friends house with ease . 
when plugged in , it does n't lag the computer like the archos did ... unless you are doing a massive transfer of data in one load . 
after playing with this little device , i do n't know why i would look at an ipod with the same space when it costs $ 500 and i got mine for a little more than half that price ! 
i really have no complaints over this unit . 
i really do recommend this to anyone in need of a new player . 
in fact , my boyfriend is now going to invest into one of these suckers as well ... now he realizes that this is the best choice over his current archos and the ipod he was eyeing . 
 not able to install . 
getting the program to install properly has been a living hell experience . 
the cd just has too many problems with win xp . 
i am going to have to try an online download and see if that works . 
also , the instruction manual is very bad . 
 fantastic piece of machinery . 
i have no complaints with this mp3 player . 
getting files onto it is quick and painless . 
then sorting the files is easy as pie . 
and it holds sooooo much music and audio files . 
my music demands are pretty intense and this handles those demands without problems . 
also , the sound is wonderful ... my only gripe were those aweful earphones that this came with . 
come on, at $ 300 they could at least put in a good pair of earphones . 
sheesh ! ! 
the battery is nice . 
i listened to it for several days before needing to recharge them . 
the lcd screen was very large and readable . 
thank you ! 
my last mp3 player 's screen drove me nuts . 
a great buy . 
compared to everything else in this category , this is most definately the best bang for the buck . 
 not ipod competition . 
i think the whole zen line has been fairly innovative and reasonably priced , but it 's not really appropriate to compare the pricing of the zen line to the ipods ( although , the ipod is still way over priced ) . 
you 're talking totally different hardware . 
all of the zens use a standard notebook drive . 
this puts the zen in line with players like the rca jukebox and the whole line of archos players ( the newer ones are a bit better than the original archos jukeboxes ... but i popped out the drive in my 20 gig jukebox recorder and put in a 60 gig drive and use it exclusively as a powered portable usb 2.0 drive ). 
the ipod uses a smaller ( and more expensive ) drive ( 1.8 " ) . 
the devices competing with the ipod are the iriver ihp 120 , the rio karma , and the philips hdd100 . 
i should point out that the new rio karma is now down to about $ 280 and is reviewed readily as being as good as ( and better in some areas ) the ipod . 
the 20 gig ipod still goes for just under $ 400 . 
that 's a huge difference ... especially in this price range . 
i can 't believe people continue to pay those prices . 
advertising pays off i guess .. . 
i doubt anyone has ever seen an add or commercial for any other mp3 player . 
i gave the zen 5 stars because it 's excellent for the class that it is in and it 's not really appropriate to rate it based on players in a different class . 
my personal favorite is the karma ( i currently own a karma , a zen usb 2.0 , a philips hdd100 , and an upgraded 60 gig archos jukebox recorder ). 
i guess that 's why you so often see " ipodders " bashing every other player out there ( very often not knowing anything about them the whole " i spent $ 120 more for something not any better and so should you ... so i can feel better " thing . 
 ipod vs nomad zen xtra 
i originally purchase a 30 gb nomad zen xtra as a portable mp3 player . 
after fiddling around with it for a while , i notice a few dissapointments : 
transfering - i could not get my songs to completely transfer via usb 1.1 or 2.0 . 
it would only transfer 30 or so songs , and then come up with an error . 
having 4000 or so mp3s , i never got more than 500 transfered . 
scroll button - the scroll wheel was a nice idea to keep less clutter , but the button would sometimes get stuck or keep scrolling . 
size - bigger than the ipod 
software - music match jukebox is n't the greatest , the search funtion is n't fast even when accessing it with the hotkey shortcut . 
after i went through the transer issue , i returned the zen xtra and purchased the 40 gig ipod . 
song transfers were not an issue . 
i transfered all 16 gigs in 15 minutes without any errors via firewire . 
the navigion on it can be a little quirky , but still operates better than the zen 's did . 
the ipod is also an attractable piece , being lightweight and small . 
the casing scratches a little easy , but the glove cases work great to protect against this . 
sound quality was the same between the two , but the zen did have more sound adjustments with the normal eax features . 
i chose to keep the ipod and am very happy with the purchase . 
granted it is a little more than the zen , it is well worth it . 
itunes is a versatile program and i have n't had any issues with the ipod itself . 
 wonderful . 
i love this player . 
its great . 
all i have to say is that i did freeze on me once , but it has n't done it since . 
i love this player and would probably go with creative labs again . 
the software was great , as long as you have an adminstrative user account ( windows xp ) . 
i got every song i had downloaded to the player within a day or so . 
it only took about 30 minutes to download everything , and that was about 950 songs . 
anyway , this player is a great deal and i really love it . 
 a good product . 
first , the cons ... a tad bulky ... not the most asthetic looking player ... and does n't support a folder stucture . 
the pro ... 
way less expensive than the ipod . 
my opinions : 
personally , i do n't understand all the complaints about the interface .. . 
i find it pretty easy to use ... and unlike the remote interface for the audigy 2 nx ( on the pc ) .. . 
it actually gives the option to clear the previous playlist when i want to play another list . 
meaning i do n't have to manually clear the list , and then load the new list . 
the cons are n't really a big deal to me ... except one con that does annoy me is the way it stores files ... no folder structure ... and it 's based on the title of the songs ... many of my songs where seperated into folders ( on the pc ) ... and a few had same titles ... so i had to change the titles to make sure that i did n't have any that might be the same as another . 
and man ... i had to work to put my chinese songs on the player ... because i had the actual chinese names of the songs as the title .. 
and since the current language selection was english ( even though i think only the menu supports chinese , and not the track info ) ... all it saw were " ? " s and even though the songs had different names in chinese .. 
if it had the same number of " ? " s then it would ask if you want to overwrite another song that just had the same number of " ? " s. . . 
buyer beware ! sort your songs and adjust the titles accordingly ( maybe this applies to other players too , and not just the nomad , i do n't know ) . 
i would 've still bought this drive even if i knew about this issue beforehand . 
not counting the time i spent editing the songs ( i suppose i should 've done it anyway on my pc ) the transfer was pretty painless . 
once you start sending files , it 'll continue until it 's done or it hits a song that has the same title as another song ... at which point you can skip , skip all , replace , replace all , or cancel . 
and go from there ... if you chose one of the " all " options , then you do n't need to do anything until it 's done . 
in two transfer batches ( first was english songs , then foreign languages ) , it did n't come up with any errors ( aside the duplicate name i mentioned ). 
so i do n't know what the previous review that could n't do more than 30 songs is talking about . 
of course , unlike that person i will mention that i upgraded the firmware to 1.23 . 00. but i did transfer files before the upgrade without problem too . 
you should update the firmware before upgrading the drivers if you decide you need the newer drivers for the pc. 
the mediasource itself was flaky ... crashing my explorer twice within the first hour ( the crash did n't require a reboot ) ... but after another reboot , it has n't crashed since . 
did i mention i 've already dropped it once ? 
that was n't pretty . 
there 's a dent on the upper-back-right and lower-back-right corners ... not too obvious unless you 're up close . 
hehe , my bad . 
that 's all for now . 
 so far , it 's sweet . 
bought the 30gb xtra a couple of weeks ago , and so far it has been excellent . 
i still have over 19gb left , and already have over 200 cd 's on it . 
i 'll have to borrow cd 's to rip from friends to even come close to filling the thing . 
i 'm not sure why people have problems with either the interface of the nomad , or the software that comes with the unit . 
both are very easy to learn & use , and intuitive enough for even a novice . 
besides user error ( surprise , surprise ) , it 's hard to imagine people having trouble with either . 
ripping & transferring tunes is basic , and pretty fast ( even on a 1.1 usb ) . 
people also have complained about the case not having a window , but that 's not really a big deal to me either -- the case is sturdy and offers very good protection . 
it 's easy enough to pop it open to see what song you 're listening to . 
the sound quality is excellent ( and i 'm fussy with that stuff ) , the unit looks cool , screen is bright and easy to read , and the replaceable battery means a major advantage over the ipod ( besides the price , but everyone knows that ) . 
you of course have some good customization options with the unit as well ( sound presets , navigating options , playlists , etc ) . 
i just put it on " shuffle " , sit back , and enjoy the eclectic mix that almost 3,000 tunes offer ! 
the only thing i 'm concerned about is the quality / longevity of the buttons on the thing . 
my " fast forward " button works , but it takes a little extra pressure on it to make it go . 
not an urgent issue , as it still works .. . 
all other buttons are pretty sensitive to touch and work well . 
i 'll have to see if this becomes a problem down the road . 
but i 've already emailed creative tech support about it , and gotten timely responses - they will fix it for me if necessary .. . 
we 'll see if i need them to . 
sure , it 's a little bigger than the ipod , but not by much . 
this is not the unit you should use if you go jogging anyway . 
it still fits in the palm of your hand , and it 's not heavy . 
i use mine at the office , in the car ( with a cassette adapter ) , and will be taking it on a flight back east for the holiday . 
yes . 
get better headphones . 
rip your tunes at 192kb if you like , alhthough 128kb sounds just dandy , and you 'll get more tunes stored on it . 
bottom line ... great product , unbeatable price . 
i got mine for $ 160 less than the ipod 30gb ( got an extra $ 30 off for applying for an amazon visa ... thanks amazon ! ) 
basic shipping was a bit slow , but that 's okay . 
i got it now , and i 'm diggin ' it . 
 nightmare . 
awful , awful , awful . 
unlike my 3 other mp3 players , this thing will only work properly if you have id3 tags on all of your tracks . 
if you do n't have tags , it 'll lump all of your tracks into the same directory and they cannot be searched via artist or album as the zen does not recognize folders . 
it 's a shame , but mine is going back . 
bummer as it has great sound quality . 
 excellent product . 
i just received my 40gb zen xtra yesterday and i 'm extremely pleased with it . 
my brother bought an ipod this past summer and my dad bought the original zen around the same time .. 
just before we all spent a couple weeks in an rv together . 
the ipod is a neat piece of machinery but after screwing around with both of them i think the zen products are the way to go . 
so i requested and received a zen xtra as a christmas gift . 
the setup and transfer process was cake for me . 
i just used the explorer program to move my songs to my player . 
i did have to put a little work into renaming some duplicate file names to get all my music on my zen xtra but it was n't a big problem . 
the explorer program did shut down a couple times while i was renaming titles and changing genres but i did n't have to reboot the computer or anything , just open up explorer again . 
it 's been so long since i 've had a program not shut down on me in windows that i hardly even noticed that it happened . 
that 's probably a bad thing . 
the unit itself did lock up a few times and i had to hit the reset button but that was a fairly painless process as well . 
it was always after it finished a process or something , so it did n't cause any file errors . 
now that i have all my music on it there has n't been any more problems . 
the screen is large and bright and has all the info i need where i need it . 
i have n't tried setting up any playlists yet so i can 't comment on any problems there . 
the eax mode that keeps the volume at the same level for any song will come in handy when i take my holiday plane rides . 
the little jog dial seems weak and quirky and i hope i do n't figure out a way to break it . 
the dial on the original zen was perfect and i wish it was on this model . 
all in all though i 'm very happy with my new mp3 player . 
i 'll admit that i 'd own an ipod if i had money to burn , but for the money this is a much better buy . 
highly recommended ! 
 fantasic product . 
i purchased the nomad jukebox zen xtra 40gb and it is fantastic ! 
i have windows xp pro and when installing the enclosed software i did receive a message that there was a problem installing the driver . 
this was quickly and easily fixed by going to the creative web site and downloaded then installed the updated driver . 
i found using the supplied mediasource software very easy . 
if you have always on internet or are logged into the internet you can use the feature that will download the album & song id information ( this is a free service ) with the click of a button . 
ripping your songs and creating playlists could n't be any easier . 
i found using mediasource to load your songs to the nomad jukebox to be much easier and faster than using windows explorer . 
just highlight the songs you want to transfer from your playlist or music library then click one button and it 's done ! 
being a creative product the playback quality is unbeatable . 
i use my own mid-priced headphones rather than the enclosed earbuds . 
when i played back a symphony orchestra you would swear that you were seated dead center in front of the orchestra - it 's that good ! 
the sound quality with jazz and pop music is equally superior . 
actually using the nomad jukebox is easy and uncomplicated . 
finding a particular song ( s ) or album on the nomad jukebox is fast and easy . 
i like to play my music by album and the nomad jukebox plays the songs in the same order as the actual cd . 
the high resolution screen is easy to read and has a backlight . 
i can highly recommend this product because of its ease of use ( hardware and software ) , playback quality and value for the price . 
 good value . 
just bought one & i 've enjoyed it to date . 
nice palm sized unit , somewhat bigger then the ipod but not an issue if you 're not going to try & jog with it or something . 
all reviews i 've seen seem to indicate that the creative mp3 jukeboxes have the best sound quality of these 2nd generation jukeboxed ( ipod , archos , dell , samsung ) . 
the eax settings are somewhat superfluous but not really a negative . 
i 've tried the belkin fm transmitter unit with it & it worked well when i set it on top of a portable radio , but was awful trying to use in the car which is somewhat of a disappointment . 
dislikes 
- the controls are much inferior to the simple ipod ones . 
the black fly wheel feels pretty cheap & is uncomfortable to use . 
the locations of various buttons on one side or the other is somewhat illogical 
- included creative software is pretty poor . 
red chair 's notmad explorer is great & recommended by about every reviewer to repleace the creative jukebox software . 
note : this will add about $ 30 to the price to purchase , but worth it 
likes 
- great value 40gb vs 10 gb ipod for the price 
- best in class sound 
- large easy readable screen 
 depressingly poor quality . 
after receiving the box from amazon , i proceeded with charging the unit for the specified 4 hours , after which i installed the software and connected the unit to my pc via usb 2.0 . 
the pc quickly picked up on it and attempted to install the software , which failed , as creative chose not to follow microsoft standards , whatever . 
i then installed the software manually instead , after having to click past about 5 windows of " please register with us so we can spam your inbox " . 
at this time , i decided to turn the player on , and much to my surprise it comes with quite the little library of classical music , one of which is a childhood favorite , bach 's air . 
i tried to play the song three times , with no success . 
it would either not play the song at all , or skip wildly , no matter that the unit was resting on my desk . 
well , maybe that particular song was just corrupt , so i tried to upload some of my own , after four attempts , at each one the unit locked up and required a reboot , i managed to upload an album , which albeit was surprisingly fast , however when attempting to create a playlist out of my newly uploaded songs , the nomad again froze up and refused to work . 
i made an additional five attempts at creating a playlist , before packing the unit up and heading over to amazon 's product return page . 
needless to say , i would n't recommend anyone purchasing this product . 
had there been strange noises , or obvious defects , i would have accepted a replacement , but this is clearly from a defective and inferior operating system and i for one do not intend on waiting for patches . 
 wonderful . 
charged my battery . 
plugged it in . 
installed software . 
started ripping and transferring . 
if you arent hooked up to cddb to get the album info i guess you have to manually input the stuff , but that little work will save you looking for songs . 
i 've got 1200 songs on it now and about 4000 more to go . 
working for 10 hours with it on " shuffle " totally rocks ! ! 
i love it ! ! 
 poor reliability . 
i bought this only to have it break within a month . 
this product is too fragile for normal use . 
 good player , but this technology is not yet great . 
i received this as a gift . 
i had no problems setting up the software and getting my favorite cd 's transferred . 
however , the creative software is not real intuitive . 
the software is somewhat nice to look at , using it is not the easiest . 
if you want to rename a cd title that you have already transferred , you will become frustrated quite quickly . 
you are better off deleting it , re-ripping it with the new title and then transferring it to the player . 
transfers are surprisingly quick through usb 2.0 . 
it is great sounding , even with the supplied earbuds . 
i must have differing preferences than others here , as i prefer the supplied earbuds to the sony 's that i thought sounded good on other players . 
i love the storage in this thing . 
i have 100 of my cd 's transferred and have n't made a dent in the 30 gb drive . 
i doubt i will use half of the storage capacity , but you never know . 
this is definitely opening up possibilities to obtaining mp3 's in which i would have never purchased the cd . 
now my dissapointments . 
the description of the warranty is buried on the supplied set up cd . 
the warranty is 90 days . 
this is ridiculous . 
to me this alludes to the manufacturer 's confidence that the product will last for a year . 
buy the re-seller 's extended warranty and save yourself a headache for the problems you will have later , after all it is a hard drive and it will die or have issues over time ( probably sooner than later ) . 
the scroll wheel , to be blunt , sucks . 
seems it is always difficult to press to make a selection . 
the interface used could be better designed . 
it is a little cumbersome to scroll through so many levels to get to the selection you want . 
i am a software engineer and if i wrote an interface to my software that worked like this , there would be hell to pay , not to mention the ridicule from my peers . 
and the case , how did this ever make it out of quality control . 
it is some protection for the unit , but for useability , forget it . 
the screen is covered , so to make any new selections you have to open it . 
the cut-outs for the controls is not thought out as there is too much material in the way to adequately access the controls , especially the scroll wheel . 
there are no other aftermarket cases available for this model yet , so you have to live with it . 
despite the things that i have listed so far , i could live with this item since it saves me from lugging a cd case to work , to the gym , in the car , etc. . 
however the main reason i am not satisfied with this product is the fact that it will lock up at odd times . 
i have had it lock up after a transfer of music . 
the files are there , but i could not access the player without removing the battery , waiting a short period and re-inserting the battery . 
also have had it lock up when i shut it down to attend to a phone call . 
left it set on my desk came back five minutes later and it just wanted to keep playing the same song over and over . 
could not stop it , could not get out of the " now playing " screen . 
again had to remove the battery . 
there have been other occurrences of locking , but i will not bore you with the details . 
quite simply , the firmware and / or the os that control this thing is not ready for prime time . 
there have also been times that the unit has been turned off for some period of time , upon powering it up it starts on the " now playing " screen with a song or cd that i had been playing days before . 
i have n't quite figured this one out yet , but it is probably operator error . 
now i have not owned other mp3 players as i was waiting until they matured , but since i received it as a gift i now have this one . 
i would suspect that there are similar problems with all of the other brands as this is somewhat new technology . 
and we all know about the rush to market on new products . 
i have had this player for 2 weeks , i will be returning it for an exchange in the hopes that the locking problem and scroll wheel are problems with this particular unit . 
while i am at the store i will definitely get the extended warranty as i have another day or so ( from the purchase date ) to obtain one . 
i know this unit will have problems in the future and the $ 40 for the 2 year " no questions asked " replacement warranty will be worth it , since creative will only warrant it for 90 days - which in itself is totally ridiculous ! 
 excellent product . 
this is my second creative labs mp3 player , and it is definitely a fine product . 
first let me give you the bad things : 
1 . the size is a little bit bigger than the ipod , and it weighs a little bit more . 
2 . the scroll button is n't the best , as it sometimes can be hard to select . 
3 . that 's pretty much all the negatives the positive things truly outnumber the negatives , and the negatives are n't that bad . 
first of all the player 's sound quality is superior to the ipod . 
the player 's software is very easy to use and very good . 
compared to musicmatch , the software has a better filing system and easier to use . 
to keep it short , this is cheaper , and in my opinion a better choice than an ipod . 
 difficulties with tags . 
if you purchase this product , definitely rip your songs through windows media player . 
otherwise , you 'll have to mess around a lot with filenames inside the ( decent ) nomad explorer , which is not fun at all . 
this thing seriously is a good player though . 
 another electronics fan . 
summary 
overall i like the unit . 
i gave it only 3 stars due to the fact that the 1st one broke when i dropped it from a fairly short distance ( less than 2 ft ) . 
if it were not for that i would have given it 4 . 
pros : 
1 ) price / gb of storage 
2 ) storage capacity 
3 ) user replaceable battery 
cons : 
1 ) fragile ( i broke the 1st one within 10 days ) 
2 ) scroll button / switch 
3 ) the case hides the display - you have to open it to see what you are doing . 
features that would have been nice : 
1 ) fm receiver - some models out there have this . 
2 ) fm transmitter - so you can place the unit in your car and listen to the unit through your car stereo . 
they sell an adapter unit to use with your car 's cassette deck . 
but who wants the wires involved . 
a short range fm transmitter would be much nicer . 
i believe the napster mp3 player has this feature . 
details : 
do n't drop this unit : 
i 've had the player for about a month now . 
overall i like it . 
as mentioned above i broke the player within the 1st 10 days . 
i was sitting on a train and it fell off my lap and broke . 
i think it fell right on the earphone plug when it fell ( murphy strikes again ) . 
i was able to return it to the retailer where i bought it and got a replacement . 
if you are going to need a player that is rugged this may not be the one for you . 
i purchased the extended warranty ( something i almost never do ) when i returned the unit to get the replacement . 
updating the unit 's firmware : 
when i first purchased the unit i downloaded the firmware update that was available on their website . 
the upgrade went smoothly and was easy to do if you can follow directions . 
i would recommend doing the upgrade to be sure you have the best chance at trouble free operation . 
storage : 
the storage capacity is great . 
i do n't think i will ever use the full 30gb . 
i currently have ~ 1100 songs encoded mostly at 196 kpbs and i have n't even used 10gb of storage yet . 
i 'm starting to listen to cd 's that i have n't listened to in years now that i have them all handy in one place . 
for those out there that are not familiar with mp3 encoding , you can encode your cd 's at varying quality levels . 
typically people use 96kbs to 320 kps. 
the higher the number the better the quality ( less data compression is used ) and the larger the file size . 
if you decide to encode at 320 you will fit less on this device than someone who encodes at 128kps . 
you should consider this when deciding what bit rate you want to use and how much you want to put on the player . 
if you 're someone who wants to put 10,000 songs on this thing you may want to encode at the lower end ( typically 128 is considered close to cd quality ). 
price : 
the price compared to the ipod is great . 
price , along with the replaceable battery ( which i understand apple charges a small fortune to replace - as well as the hassle of returning it ) were the two main factors on why i picked the nomad . 
one word of caution with regards to using the nomad with itunes . 
i discovered this weekend that itunes does not sell mp3 's in the mp3 format . 
it using something called ac3 ( at least the trial song i purchased was in this format ) which is not a compatible format for the nomad . 
i have n't figured out if this is the case for all the songs on itunes . 
but for now it appears that this player does n't play well with itunes . 
scroll bar : 
the scroll bar is a bit of a pain . 
sometimes you skip past things or have to press it twice to select items . 
it 's not the end of the world , but a better design sure would be nice . 
software : 
i 've had no problems with the software . 
i found it intuitive to use ( i did n't read any documentation for it and was using it successfully within a few minutes ) . 
the software will convert your cd 's to mp3 and put them on the player as well as your hard disk if you want it to . 
my 2.6 mhz pentium 4 with usb 2.0 was able to perform the task pretty quickly ( i would estimate ~ 5 - 8 minutes per cd ). 
through the software you can classify songs in genres . 
this is a nice feature ( i.e. it 's early in the morning and you rather listen to " easy listening " rather than " heavy metal " - no problem . 
the software comes with plenty of defaults genres . 
you can also create your own if you do n't like their classifications . 
you can edit the genres once the songs are on the play if you decide to re-classify things later . 
this can be done on a song by song basis or in mass . 
in addition , you can create play lists where you can create the equivalent to a compilation cd right on your player . 
this is pretty cool . 
sound : 
the sound from the player is ok . 
i was a little disappointed in the low end . 
i did buy separate headphones as other have recommended . 
i was able to improve things a bit by using the units equalizer and boosting the base . 
the sound level is also not as high as i would have expected . 
it 's probably good for the health of your ears , however i consistently play it near the high end of the volume range ( and my hearing is fine ). 
 searching for dennis ! 
wow , dennis sure is great ! 
slowly yet surely my unit engorged as i read my own review , similar to when i look in the mirror . 
this thing is great , i like to use it to pick up tough stains on my countertop and also to listen to my old 8-track records . 
sometimes when i get really lonely , i like to put on some kenny g and light some candles , and while this does n't help , i am a capitalist pig and like buying things too , nah mean ! ? 
i did have some problems figuring out how to turn the unit on , but creative did a good job with this , as they had a clearly labled " on " button that i found when i left my cellar for the first time in years . 
there was very little light in there . 
anyway , im gon na go find dennis now , have a nice day ! ! ! 
 it is ok , but .. . 
i got my zen xtra a little bit more then a week ago . 
it was not my first choice . 
i have done a lot of research before i decided to buy the nomad zen xtra . 
one good thing , it is 40 gb of disk space ( well , it is 38 gb in reality ) . 
for the price and features it is really good . 
one thing , before buying this player i have called the creative tech. support and asked them if i can navigate by folders beside artist / album and answer was yes . 
sure enough there is no such ability . 
not sure , if customer rep. did not know the product exactly , it is still new or they just give an anser which users would like to hear . 
in any case , navigation by artist / album is ok however i miss an ability to navigate by folders . 
you even can not navigate by genre / artist / album since under genre you get just all tracks in that genre , no other division . 
creative is talking about updating it via firmware , however after following some while the descussion groups for nomad players , looks like creative represents mostly bug fixes in their firmware updates , not too much of new features . 
the software , which comes with player is not good at all . 
i did not managed to make creative nomad explorer to work . 
after installing it and trying to make it working for 30 minutes i went and bought notmad . 
notmad worked right away after install and it is what i would like to see from the product . 
transfer files is easy using notmad , however again , would be great if nomad supported folders like iriver , rca lyra and some other . 
often i fill i need to have better organization for the library and there is not enought of variables . 
artist , album and genre are only mp3 tags which are supported buy this player , and if you have 100 artists would be good to have another subcategory . 
after all those players have 40-60 gb of hard drive , so better organization is required . 
the bottom line , i 'll still watch the progress of iriver hdd players and if they produce 40 gb player i 'll will sell my nomad and buy iriver . 
 the bundled software blows , yes ... ... but i heard of notmad explorer ( http://redchairsoftware.com) from the creative tech support people . 
i downloaded the trial version , and after less than 10 minutes of using it , decided it was well worth the price . 
so yes , as with all software bundled with creative products , it was useless and ugly . 
for once , though , this 3rd party software is excellent . 
dont let the bad reviews of the software change your mind . 
zens rule . 
 unmatched quality and beyond cool . 
originally i wanted the ipod . 
most people probably wanted the ipod before realizing that a vast array of full-featured viable alternatives exist . 
i like the way apple is innovative , but let 's face it - they can 't be the only one with an idea to enclose a 2.5 " hd within an aluminum case in a stylish package for long , especially after the buzz is out of their little techie pod . 
the 30gb zen xtra rocks my socks , spills my beer , but does n't wash my car . 
so what ? 
i can do that myself . 
longer battery life , greater accessibility to online music services , and pc compatibility are the sensibilities . 
the visceral teases include the case , the sound quality , and the capacity . 
i have n't checked the resilience of my xtra yet , and do n't plan to . 
however , if anyone has participated in violent or extreme sports while using their zen , please share your experiences . 
i 'm considering using mine as a distraction to winter boredom in the paintball fields . 
it can get pretty lonely out there . 
 creative thinking . 
i just purchased this player and i have to say that i love it . 
the sound is excellent , the battery life is excellent , the fact that the battery is replacable is excellent , and finally the price , $ 200 cheaper than the 40gb ipod , is excellent . 
the only thing the ipod has over the nomad is the style , size , and ease of use . 
the nomad is not ugly , it is not that big , it comfortably fits in my pocket , or heavy , and the controls are not hard to get used to . 
so far i have no complaints and i recommend this to anyone who wants quality over appearance , also anyone who wants a harddrive based mp3 player and wants to pay next to nothing . 
i only have one question , when i add tracks to my nomad , via nomad explorer , they are automatically put in alphebetical order , rather than album order . 
is this possible to fix , if so how , if not does notmad explorer from red chair software do this ? 
i would like album order for my live albums and was just wondering . 
thank you very much , and go out and get yourself a nomad ! 
 got to get an ipod ! 
wow .. . 
this thing is trash . 
want the laundry list of reasons why ? 
of course you do ! 
a ) feel cheap -- the plastic is feels like it would break very easily , and it definately wouldnt survive a drop 
b ) the screen is hard to read -- the cover hides it an already annoying poorly lit display 
c ) the scroll bar is a travesty -- enough said 
d ) software is another great misfortune -- hard to operate , crashes frequently , screwed my music library up , doesnt work with mp4s , the list goes on and on 
e ) the case is too small -- it took me like a half hour just to get this monstrosity to fit in its cage 
f ) it doesnt look pretty -- spending this kind of cash , you want something that has the asthetics bit down , of course 
so .. . 
im taking mine back tomorrow morning , and getting a nice shiny new ipod instead . 
do n't waste your time , engery , resources on this thing , just spend a little more for a far more functional ipod . 
 do n't buy it . 
i bought the zen xtra 30g as a gift . 
what a disappointment . 
the software failed repeatedly . 
i could n't load more than one song before the software crashed . 
creative labs customer support website is useless . 
software downloads on the site crashed my pc . 
creative tech support operators work 9-6 p.m. weekdays - as if i had time during work hours to spend time on this . 
do n't buy this thing . 
 great mp3 player . 
i just bought this player today and i already love it . 
it has a few inconveniences : one is that the songs do not automatically play one after another like on a cd . 
another irriation is that if you hold the scroll button down for too long , it keeps going past the song you may have wanted to stop on . 
otherwise , this player is awesome ! 
it has a clear blue light that allows you to see everything on the screen easily . 
the volume range is great , so you can blast it if you want . 
overall , this player is awesome and i definately recommend it . 
 perfect purchase . 
i received this item for christmas and it has met and exceeded all my standards . 
naturally i did quite a bit of review before purchasing ( i recomend www.nomadness.net ) , and price-wise zens are unbeatable . 
compared to other leading hdd mp3 players , the value per gb is the tops . 
- price : see above . 
- sound quality : excellent , everything you would expect from this company . 
- the unit is easy to use and intuitive . 
it took me about 5 minutes before i had mastered the controls . 
- uploading music is quick and easy . 
although the supplied software can be annoying at times , on whole it is excellent . 
i have uploaded about 3,000 songs now with very minimal difficulty . ( it 's fast too ! ) 
btw , be sure to have your mp3 tags labled correctly , as this will ensure a great organization . 
- the unit itself its well structured , with just the buttons you need and none you do n't . 
as often mentioned , the scroll tab is average , however , not difficult to use or horrible . 
structurally , everything is secure and it wo n't fall apart on you . 
the screen is large , defined , and easy to read , and the silver unit is naturally cool . 
there are lots of interesting features included such as eax , and customization . 
- the replacable battery is great since once it eventually wears out ( as all lithium batteries do ) , you will be able to buy another easily . 
ipod users have to send theirs back and pay $ 100 for a replacement . 
also , the nomad 's 14 hours of battery life versus 8 is handy . 
- equipment included is average , but that is n't a big deal since thats not what you are buying it for . 
the case is strong and stylish , but unfortunately lacks a window ( now a big deal ) . 
the headphone earbuds are average , so just use your regular pair instead . 
conclusion : 
this player is an ideal purchase . 
there is n't need to get in details again , but just remember it rocks because : price , sound , ease of use , and features . 
i would recogmend this player to anyone i know , and you will not be dissapointed . 
 impressive with few flaws . 
the nomad jukebox zen xtra is a very good mp3 player but the software is it gets hurt . 
i have no problem using the player itself and i feel it is a very good player . 
on my main computer the software did not work right . 
i had to sit on the phone with customer support for 2 hours and they did not help at all . 
i eventually gave up with customer support and worked on fixing the problem myself . 
i have the software working fine now and the mp3 player is fantastic . 
it seems that depending on the system the software might not work or might work , because it works on all the other computers i have . 
so once i worked out the problem with the software this mp3 player is worth the money it cost . 
 awesome . 
i 'm very pleased with my zx so here 's a quick review . 
first there 's the unit itself . 
it is small overall , bigger than the ipod , but keep in mind that this is because different , less expensive but not necessarily inferior technology is used in the zx . 
the zx boasts superior sound quality than the ipod , however it compromises a bit of the unit 's size in doing so . 
the lcd is larger than the previous model , the nx , and has a bright blue backlight which illuminates the screen more successfully than the nx 's green backlight did . 
the scroll wheel is easy to use and works great for me , however many have complained that the wheel is cumbersome and difficult to operate . 
the sound is excellent as one would suspect from a creative product . 
the included eax support is useful at times , especially when you listen to a variety of genres , as it will adjust the equalizer for you which can be a big hassle . 
the environmental audio , however , is almost completely useless and has made most of my songs sound worse than without it ( i encode my songs at 192-256 kbps without variable bit rates . ) 
the signal to noise ratio ( the ratio of detectable , useful data to unusable garbage in , say , a radio wave ; a larger stn ratio is better ) is nice and high at 98 decibles , and it should be noted that apple refuses to release the stn ratio of any of the ipods . 
the software has n't been a hassle for me at all . 
i ignored the instruction booklet ( as i do with any product ) and figured out how to organize separate playlists within minutes . 
my sister was able to figure it out on her own as well , and she is of average computer competence . 
the less computer-saavy might find apple 's software a bit friendlier , though ( i use it at a friend 's house and it does do a lot more for you . ) 
lastly , the price is fantastic : 
i spent $ 269 for my 30gb zx , compared to the $ 299 for a 10gb ipod and the also expensive iriver ihp-120 . 
for prospective buyers , i would warn of the following : 1 ) purchase a better pair of headphones as soon as possible , as earbuds sound terrible and are terribly uncomfortable ( this applies to earbuds in general , ) and 2 ) make sure that your mp3s have id3 tags on them , that when when they are loaded into the playlist they will automatically sort themselves . 
if you want great sound quality , do n't want to spend an arm and a leg per-gigabyte , do n't mind being something of an iconoclast among many ipod users , and are willing to sacrifice a few cubic centimeters of your personal space for a large discount , then i would suggest the zen xtra for you . 
 it 's pretty good . 
read the instuctions - do not plug the zen into your computer until you have installed all the software onto your computer and rebooted it ! ! 
( i had no problems since i did this but there seem to be a couple of very bitter reviews further down - maybe they did not do this or maybe there are some very sad ipod owners since they all recomend it instead ) . 
and have you seen the price of the ipod extras that you need . 
eg 60 $ for a plastic box to hold 4 aaa batteries to increase the use time past 6-8 hrs ( reviewers figures ) 
i uploaded the drivers and new software in 15 minutes - no crashes or problems . 
transferred the zens new software onto it in about 10 seconds . 
it is transferes a song in about 2 seconds . 
usb 2.0 - very fast 
yeah i agree the earbuds are pretty crap , replace them . 
but the sound is very good ( and loud ) and works well on my portable speakers . 
and for those that are intrested the recharger works anywhere in the world ( and is quite small ). 
it looks very cool , and seems quite small to me and very light . 
the scroll button seems ok , i have no problems with it . 
i am very pleased so far . 
i had all my files already on my pc in wma format ( 200 cd 's ). 
so far so good , no problems , no conversions . 
very simple to use . 
the reason it does not get 5 stars 
1 ) a spare battery would have been great . 
2 ) no games - it has a cool screen - why not use it . 
3 ) it does not work automatically like a hard drive when you connect it to your computer , like some players 
all in all suprisingly easy to use . 
 a great player for the price . 
summary : 
lots of flaws , but exceptional sound quality , hd size , and price make it a good buy . 
pros : 
excellent sound - i found the music reproduced faithfully through the jukebox . 
there was no distortion and it sounded great , especially with eax environmental audio enabled . 
transfer through windows explorer - windows recognizes the jukebox as an additional hard disk , so it allows you to simply drag and drop files from windows explorer to a folder for the nomad . 
i found this to be a much easier method of transferring my music to the nomad than using their software . 
however , it does n't register instantly as a hard drive like other players . 
you have to install the software to the computer you 're transferring to , instead of just connecting it with a usb connection . 
this would have been much easier . 
the nomad can hold any type of file , not just mp3 , so you can use it as a portable hard disk . 
i found it very useful for transferring large files to another computer . 
this almost made it worth the price alone . 
i was able to easily copy 2gb worth of video files from my computer , and then transfer them to a friend 's . 
huge storage space - even at 320kbs , you can store a ton of songs on this thing . 
30gb is more than enough for most people . 
having usb 2.0 makes for very fast transfers . 
it only took me about 10 seconds to transfer a 200mb file . 
it took maybe 15 minutes to transfer 1000 songs . 
cons : 
navigation system - the zen xtra uses id3 tags that are embedded in the mp3 files to organize your songs . 
this is great as long as all of your music have id3 tags , and if you 've downloaded your songs off the internet , many probably do n't . 
it would have been much easier to use a windows explorer style navigation system . 
you can 't simply open up a folder from the player and play all the songs in it . 
whe you transfer your songs to the jukebox , it dumps all of them into a single folder , and then sorts them by the id3 tags. 
fm receiver - it has none . 
i would be nice to have a simple fm receiver so i could pick up local stations . 
that way i could get rid of a walkman alltogether . 
cheap construction - they should have made the player out of hard plastic and put some rubber on the corners . 
the player feels very delicate , as if i 'm holding an actual hard drive . 
i 'm not sure if it would survive a fall from 3 feet . 
as a portable player , it should feel a bit more durable . 
the top of the player is a thin metal piece that covers up the battery and is removable . 
i could crush this thing in half with two fingers if i wanted to . 
this is not a player you can take jogging . 
the songs do n't play one after another like on a cd . 
you have to add them to the playing list . 
i can 't simply bring up my entire list of songs , click play , and then hit next . 
you have to add all the songs to a play list . 
there is probably an easier way to do this , i just have n't found it yet . 
software - the software is crap . 
i use it for ripping cds , which it does a pretty good job of . 
otherwise , it is difficult to figure out and awkward . 
like most people , i do n't want to read the instructions , i just want to use it . 
even after reading some of the instructions , it 's still hard to figure out . 
i would recommend replacing the existing software with the " notmad explorer , " which is simpler to use and can be found on the internet . 
no line out jack - as i said , there is none . 
the headphone jack acts as a pseudo line out jack . 
so you can plug your nomad directly into your stereo or use a car adapter , but you do n't get the quality from a true line out jack . 
it sounds decent , but i would estimate you get maybe 80 % of the quality that you would from a true line out jack . 
controls are a bit awkward . 
the controls definately took some getting used to . 
it was n't as easy to fast forward or pause a song than it was with a regular walkman . 
when i first had it i kept finding myself having to look at the nomad to figure out where the skip button was . 
a sliding old fashioned volume knob would also have been easier than the digital version that was included . 
i want to have instant access to the volume , not have to hold down a button and have to wait a half second for the player to register it . 
crappy headphones . 
the included earbuds were uncomfortable . 
i would replace them with some better sounding and more comfortable phones . 
difficult navigation - i wo n't necessarily say " difficult , " but i do n't enjoy the scrollwheel to navigate . 
it is a bit cumbersome , and i can 't get to the songs i want as quickly . 
i think this is it 's biggest flaw . 
i would much more have preferred a keypad-type navigator like found on dvd remotes . 
up , down , left , and right would have given me better control . 
if you hold down the scroll wheel too long ( which is common if you have a lot of songs to sort through ) , it will get " stuck " rapidly going through the songs and wo n't stop until several seconds after you let your finger off of it . 
case - the nomad comes with a leather holding case . 
it would have been much nicer if it had a window so you could see the screen , and if the button did n't cover up the ac jack . 
that way i could keep it in the case all the time . 
as it stands now , the case is pretty useless unless you 're packing the player up for travel , or if you load up all your songs beforehand . 
you can cut up the case a bit with an xacto knife and make it useable though . 
overall , i feel that it 's a decent buy , and am happy that i own it . 
i am willing to overlook it 's problems to get superior sound quality and low price , although i feel the player has a lot of room for improvement . 
 good for the money , but software is awful . 
after looking over multiple large mp3 players , i decided to get this one . 
for the price and size and features , you can 't beat the price . 
a 10 gb ipod is just as much and i have heard from multiple sources that the ipod is very loud and you can heard the hard drive everytime it spins , accesses files or does antyhing . 
i think the reson for the creative being larger is for sound dampening and protection , whihc is a plus , but then again it is only speculation . 
the buttons and interface are very easy to use . 
simple click buttons , back buttons volume and display are very easy to read , access and use . 
but the major problem i had was with the software . 
you are not able to simply import files , but rather you have to go through multiple steps to find them . 
the instructions that come with it do n't explain how to make things simple . 
the quick sync is n't any good becuase it either needs to be configured properly or just is n't very useful . 
i tried to make sense of the file transfer program and just got more confused . 
i tried to take a cd and simply rip it onto a hard drive and then transfer into the player . 
well that was not a simple task . 
i ended up suing windows player to make mp3 's ( actually wma files ) and then using the probram to transfer . 
i think the lack of the mp3 player being able to run without special software is also a downer , becuase it makes it more cumbersome for people less computer illiterate . 
buy this for the storage and price , avoid it if you know nothing about computers . 
 buy this instead of an ipod . 
with this mp3 player you get much more memory for much less than an ipod . 
an ipod with the same amount of memory is $ 150 cheaper . 
the reason for this the ipod has " a better user interface " . 
i have found that the interface on the nomad is very easy to use if you have a basic knowledge of a computer . 
also the ipod has games on it . 
games are ok for a cell phone , but mp3 's are for music . 
 this thing roxxorz . 
i purchased this player last week . 
i did a little research on the web and this is the player i decided on . 
i refuse to buy anything made by apple and the nomad is about $ 200 cheaper anyway . 
i have had no problem what-so-ever with this product . 
the software installed flawlessly and without any problems on my windows 2k machine . 
the headphones are n't the best , but you can really expect much out of the small headphones you insert in the ear cavity . 
the battery life seems good , takes very lttle time to charge , it uploads mp3s quickly and there is no delay between songs . 
took me a few tries to get use to the navigation , but it 's a very user friendly player imo . 
i have n't messed with the firmware at all , the player worked perfect for me right out of the box . 
all-in-all , this is another excellent creative product . 
if you have the money and need 40 gb , this is the player for you . 
it 's small , light and nice looking and the display is decent as well . 
i would recommend this product to anyone . 
 it does n't get any better than this . 
before asking for the zen xtra specifically for christmas i researched many different mp3 players but finally decided on this one , and now that i have it i could n't be happier and i 'm convinced it 's the best one out there . 
many people have written about the software being its one downfall , personally i have n't had a single problem with the software , i 'm running windows me . 
the cd ripping to mp3 is so easy , and you can even rip the cd directly to the mp3 player , so it wo n't take up space on your pc hard drive . 
the software runs smooth , it 's nice to look at , it 's very organized , easy to follow and makes things very simple . 
the controls on the player are very simple , no need for a manual . 
the player is fast and sounds great , it also has many options like slowing or speeding up the music , or making it sound like you 're hearing the music in a huge auditorium . 
the battery lasts very long when playing music , but writing files to the player drains the battery fast , so you need to have it plugged into an outlet when sending files . 
playlists can be made on the fly , without aid of a computer , and you can use play modes like shuffle and repeat for your ' now playing ' selections or playlists . 
the software could n't be better and the mp3 player works like a dream , i could n't give this anything but a 5 , i wish there was a 6 . 
 difficult to manage large library . 
i purchased and returned this product , but not because of any glaring flaws in the design . 
it is an extremely cool gizmo . 
in fact , everyone who saw it thought i was " the man " and wo n't believe i returned it . 
so what 's the problem ? 
i made the mistake of thinking i could easily manage my mp3 library with this device . 
i initially loaded about 3700 tracks with the intent of ripping the majority of my remaining cds to mp3 . 
i quickly discovered that the nomad was n't going to work for me . 
the reasons below will be true for any product in this category . 
here 's why : 
1 . i do n't need the nomad at the office . 
i have my mp3 's stored on my workstation . 
2 . i do n't need the nomad at home for the same reason ( although using it to sync between the two pc 's might be a reason enough to get it . ) 
3 . it 's a hazard in the car . 
the navigation is nice enough , but scrolling and searching through thousands of tracks , hundreds of albums or artists , or even dozens of genres is not conducive to save driving . 
( throw a cell phone and you 're asking for trouble . ) 3a . 
creating playlists using the included software to minimize issue 3 was n't as easy as i would have liked . 
the bottom line : 
if i have to get into making playlists to avoid rear-end collisions , i 'll just buy a regular portable cd/mp3 player and burn myself collections of about 120 tracks per disk . 
sure it 's " old school " to carry a cd wallet around , but it will be easier to manage and i 'll save around 250 bucks . 
one major complaint : 
my only significant complaint is sound quality . 
the eax sound enhancement feature did n't do enough for me and the custom eq was a limited 5 band eq . 
this did not give me enough control . 
i wanted to use the nomad with a cassette style car adapter . 
i was unable achieve a sound quality on par with my simple portable cd player with " bass boost . " 
the sound quality of my cd player is superior in this setting to the nomad . 
one minor complaint : 
the documentation says to extend battery life , do not fill player to capacity . 
gee ... thanks a lot creative . 
 great product . 
well in the beginning i was asking around for mp3 players . 
so then i came across the ipod ( 10 gb ) . 
so i was all excited about the ipod but then the day before i went to best buy to check out the other mp3 players and i came across this one . 
well i decided to get this one . 
well i have to say that this product is very good i mean it might be a little big but it still fits in your pocket . 
well surely this is a product that i recommend someone in getting rather than any other mp3 player ( at that size and the price ) . 
well just one con - its not really plug and play at first i mean its very confusing to start the program but one you do it , it will be a breeze . 
enjoy . 
 in a word ... amazing i got this for christmas . 
i was going to get a 10gb ipod , but after looking at the 10 day warranty for ipod and www.ipodsdirtysecret.com ( battery lasts 18 months ; 
it costs like 200 dollars to replace - now you mail it off to get the battery replaced for like 99 .. . 
what a big improvement ... lol ) and the fact that lots of people have had problems with ipods on windows computers , i realized this is a much better buy . 
not only is it more affordable , but its a better player for windows , which is what i have . 
anyway , on with the review . 
so far i 've only had it since christmas , so i cant tell you much about the battery life . 
it hasnt gone below the second notch ( i charge mine whenever i 'm at home and not using it ) , so the battery life seems fine ( so far ). 
software : for the people who complain about software , please , stop complaining . 
once you hook the thing up to the computer ( via the usb cable ) , the machine instantly recognizes the fact that it 's there & installs the drivers . 
from there , you transfer files from your computer to the mp3 player ( with the help of the media sniffer .. . read the manual ). 
my only complaint would be that you need id3 tags & that takes a while to do if your mp3 files do n't have them . 
if you 're copying cds with windows media , its really simple to give your songs id3 tags , so thats what i do . 
oh ... and file transfers are fast & easy . 
the player : it 's silver . 
a little weighty ( 9 ounces ... no biggie ) , but otherwise fine . 
people complain about the scroll wheel , but its not a big deal at all ( though it is just a little annoying at times ) . 
it 's easy . 
the buttons are easy to use , and its easy to navigate . 
the big backlight makes things easy to see , and the writing is big enough for people to see . 
my favorite thing about the nomad is the eax feature . 
you can customize bass , etc. like usual , but also you can customize the sound of the player ( like how it would sound in a concert hall , jazz club , etc ). 
its really cool . 
sound quality is amazing. i was expecting worse , but its really good ( especially if your files have good sound quality ) . 
you can also slow a song down & speed it up , which is cool too . 
but the earbuds suck ! 
buy new ones asap. every time you move your face or something they pop out . 
for a 250 dollar player , they could have thrown in nice headphones . 
a remote would have been cool too ... but lets not push it . 
oh ... one more thing . 
i forgot , the case does n't fit . 
my case doesnt close ... maybe mine was just faulty , but the case isnt that great . 
so far the player froze on me once ( i started pushing buttons before it loaded ) but since is hard drive based - you have to expect that . 
so all you do is stick a pin or something small in the reset button & you 're golden . 
also , you can store data on it , which is a plus. for all you people who want to buy an ipod just to say you have an ipod , do n't bother , this is a much better buy . 
hope i helped ! 
 simply doesnt shine . 
i 'd like to start off saying that before this product i was using an archos jukebox recorder .. . 
what made this product so great to me was the open source os called rockbox .. . 
based on hardware one could assume the archos players were horrible ( which by hardware standards .. . they were ) .. . 
but because a few fine men and women took the time to create the upstanding rockbox software , the archos became a top notch player for me with intuitive features out the wazoo .. . 
now we come to the zen xtra .. . 
first i 'll start off by saying that this players hardware is pretty good .. . 
the sound is indeed excellent and the form factore is not bad ( but still rather larger than i had expected ) .. . 
what really made this a mediocre mp3 player for me was the software . 
not just the transfer software ( which was a hellishly horrible experience ) but also the player 's software . 
first of all , many actions that the player utilizes do n't make sense . . 
bookmarks for example , are an excellent feature ... but not on this player .. . 
rather than creating a directory for bookmarks to be found in one area , the user must actually find the track where the bookmark was made . . 
this makes no sense and sort of defeats the purpose of audio bookmarks .. . 
the dynamic playlists ( " now playing " , i belive creative calls it ) feels very awkward at times and some menus simply take to long to get to and operate .. . 
well , anyway i could go on and on on why this player did n't meet my expectations .. . 
i 'll just say this .. . 
for the average music listener not expecting much ... this may be a satisfactory mp3 player ... 
but for someone who cares about thier music collection and wants fluid and responsive playback .. . i can 't recommend this product . 
 excellent product with a few minor problems . 
i became interested in getting a mp3 player when i got a new work computer ; while my office bars the addition of any non-work software , it does n't care if you load cds onto the hard drive . 
over time , i loaded hundreds of cds onto the computer , and the idea of carrying around all of my music with me became attractive . 
many people recommended the ipod , and i borrowed one from a friend . 
while the ease of use was very impressive , i was put off by the price -- about $ 130 more than what i paid amazon for this player . 
also , there is the need to send the ipod to replace the batteries when they die ( which they will ). 
i have had the nomad jukebox for about three weeks now , and i am very happy with it . 
it 's only slightly heavier than the ipod , and has a longer battery life . 
the storage capacity is great for me -- 
i have a large but not huge cd collection and have loaded everything i want to listen to on it and still have 13 gigabytes free . 
the controls are somewhat harder to use than the ipod , but i have gotten use to them , and even at the beginning did not think would justify the huge difference in price . 
loading cds was somewhat time-consuming , but i think it would have been with the ipod as well . 
i had never loaded my cds on to my home computer , using my work computer instead . 
my office would not let me put the software on to my work computer . 
this meant that i had to take all my cds and do in a fairly short period of time what i had done over a year at work . 
if the music had been on my home computer , the transfer would have been accomplished very quickly . 
i have an older computer , running windows 98 se , and so those of you with something more recent would find the process even quicker . 
my only reservations about this product concern the tagging process and the way it interacts with the software . 
when you load a disc , you go to an internet cite for the insertion of the names for the cd and the tracks . 
while the listing process is accurate for track names ( unlike windows ' reliance on the amg , which frequently gets track listings out of order ) , the results can be odd . 
the cd will be classified into a number of genres , and in multidisk sets , you can get separate classifications for different disks by the same artist and the same performance . 
for example , jimi hendrix 's 2 cd live at the fillmore east had one cd classifed as classic rock and the other psychidelic rock . 
perhaps the weirdest was one of bruce springsteen 's cds from the tracks set being classified as goth rock . 
you can change any of these , but need to be paying attention when the information is downloaded before you copy it . 
a somewhat more troublesome problem is that the internet site will sometimes give different discs of the same set slightly different names . 
this will cause the discs not to show up together when you are looking for them on the nomad . 
again , you can change this , but it 's harder to spot a minor variation in the title when you do n't have the title of the other disk in front of you . 
other tagging problems result ( i think ) from the nomad 's operating system . 
if you have two tracks with exactly the same name on one disk , it will not copy both -- it gives you the option of skipping the second or overwriting the first with the second . 
this is rarely a problem with any kind of popular music , but can be troublesome with classical music where tracks are identified by tempi . 
i also had it happen when recording a jazz set where there were a number of outtakes of the same song without numbering them separately . 
the way to fix this is to rename the track by adding a number yourself to the end of the track listing . 
also , i can 't understand why the software does not ignore " the " when it lists the cds in alphabetical order . 
finally , making playlists from the computer can be complicated because the tracks are listed individually , and are organized by cd , which are not listed but are organized in alphabetical order . 
in other words , to locate a track using the software on the computer and add it to a playlist , you must know the name of the cd it appears on and then find the track by locating the location of the unlisted cd by looking for tracks that appear on it . 
you do n't have this problem if you make your playlist from the nomad , where cds are listed separately . 
you need your computer , however , if you want to add tracks to a playlist . 
these are minor problems , and i list them to save anyone else the trouble of discovering them . 
had i not been in such a hurry to load cds , i would have spotted them sooner . 
also , if i had already loaded and tagged by cds on my home computer , this would not have been an issue . 
the bottom line for me is that i am very happy with this product . 
apple 's ipod is dominant now , but i have to wonder whether the price differential will mean that in 3 or 4 years its market share will drop significantly . 
 poor substitute for an ipod . 
simply not as friendly for functional as an ipod . 
even better , ipod integrates perfectly with itunes so that managing music is a snap . 
 zen versus ipod . 
i just got a 40gb ipod to replace my zen ( a 20gb model ) . 
while the ipod 's form factor is much nicer , here 's where the zen is better . 
software : 
a lot of people complain about the creative software , but i actually find creative mediasource organizer to have some strengths over itunes . 
first , the zen lets you sync to more than one computer . 
the ipod is a one way only machine - from computer to player . 
the zen is an outstanding way to shuttle music between sources , you can 't do this on the ipod ( except for a cumbersome work-around using the ipod as a hard drive instead of a player ) . 
second , the " automatic " sync on creative lets you review the songs before it begins its transfer . 
since the ipod lacks this review feature on its auto-sync and it only allows one-way transfers , the first time i connected my ipod to my laptop , i wiped out the 20gb of music i had transferred from my desktop to the ipod . 
if the hard drive on your computer should fail , better have your music backed up somewhere or its gone ! 
the zen serves as a back-up device as well as a player . 
third , creative software allows you to keep two windows open to look at both the content on the player and the computer . 
only thing missing from creative is a cd burner . 
lastly , ipod / itunes will not play wma formatted songs . 
if you have a lot of those , be prepared to convert to mp3 . 
itunes does what apple is famous for , makes software that works for the less computer saavy . 
for those of us that like to tinker , i think creative offers some advantages . 
player controls : 
here 's where the ipod drives me nuts . 
the player controls are too easy to hit accidentally . 
if you happen to push the wrong button , you can wipe out the order of songs you had put in . 
the ipod also does not let you see what 's coming up next on the player . 
zen allows you to scroll up and down the song list selected on the player . 
it also lets you remove songs from the play order . 
if you bring up an album , but absolutely hate some of the tracks , the zen will allow you to delete that from the playing order . 
you have to skip to the next track when your hated song comes up with the ipod . 
lastly , you cannot manage anything on the ipod itself . 
while you can create a temporary playlist , you can 't store it permanently , delete songs , search very easily , etc. 
none of these features are available because of the ipod 's 1-way transfers - you cannot make changes on the ipod that are premanent . 
again , the ipod is a beautiful thing to look at and touch , player controls are less functional . 
i think the ipod versus zen typifies differences between apple and win machines . 
win software can be a little cranky , but much more easier to customize to your needs . 
with apple , you get a good product , but you get it the way apple wants you to have it . 
if i had to do this again , i might get the 40gb zen . 
its ability to serve as a back-up for my music collection is a huge plus. 
 excellent alternative . 
i got this thing for christmas and i have been very happy with it ever since . 
i was planning on getting an ipod , but i changed my mind last minute ... mostly because of the whole battery issue , i do n't have the patience for those sorta things . 
my cuzin got an ipod and i wo n't say it is an awful product , but i will say that for the price , apple could do better as far as storage and battery life goes . 
the only thing i would complain about the zen xtra is that the controls are n't as easy as the ipod 's , or as " sexy " looking . 
 excellent . 
i got this player for christmas & this was my first time using an mp3 player . 
i have a large collection of cds and have loaded over 100 of them so far . 
the software is quick & easy to use & i found the entire process very easily mastered . 
as mentioned in other reviews the headphones are useless and need to be replaced right away ! 
the unit works great with my cassette adapter for my car & is also easily worked without taking your eyes off the road ! 
i have tried the belkin tunecast mobile fm transmitter but found there was too much interference . 
overall it is a great unit & hopefully creative labs or some other vendor will soon come out with some accessories for it . 
 review for folks new to mp3s . 
i purchased this mp3 player just last night after doing some scouting around . 
here 's a basic run-down from what i learned : 
flash card memory vs. hard drive ( i.e. why does a 256 mb player cost $$$...and a 40 gb ( 40,000 mb ) player only cost 
mp3 players have either flash card memory or a hard drive in them . 
the flash card memory is more expensive but is very light and compact . 
that 's why you have these things that can be keychain size . 
tiny ! 
mp3 players of this kind of memory are typically small and light and have between 64 mb - 1.5 gb of memory . 
i am averaging 4.5 mb per song , to give you an idea of how many songs you can get by the amount of memory . 
( 1 gb = 1,000 mb ) 
hard drives ( this is what most ipods have - and just about all mp3 players over 3-5 gb of memory ) . 
cheaper to produce , holds a lot , heavier and has moving parts which means it 's a little more prone to damage from being banged around . 
that said , they are pretty sturdy machines and i would n't let this dissuade you from getting an mp3 with a lot of memory . 
just be aware of it . 
this explains why you see what appears to be such weird pricing on mp3 players . 
a 256 mb player ( roughly 60 songs for me ) is about x amount of dollars but a 30 gb ( 30,000 mb ) player ( roughly 6,650 songs ) sells for only slightly more . 
it 's because the 256 player uses flash memory ( smaller / lighter ) and the 30gb uses a hard drive . 
that 's the first thing to understand . 
so consider what you 're going to use the device for . 
if you 're a jogger and you want to strap it to your arm , i 'd recommend flash memory . 
if you want to listen to tunes while you travel , i 'd get a hard drive because you can put so much on the thing - including audio books . 
review of zen xtra - 40 gb 
the device is larger than an ipod of similar capacity . 
this did n't bother me too much because it 's still a decent size . 
it comes with a good case that fits it snuggly . 
the front cover ( which you remove to take out the battery ) feels flimsy but when snapped on , the device still feels pretty solid . 
as some other reviewers noted , after it was connected to the computer for a bit , it somehow stopped reading the player so i had to replug it . 
it did not lock up my computer or require a reboot . 
the software lets you pop in a cd and then scans the internet to name the artist , track name and album name . 
extremely convenient . 
then it rips the tunes into mp3s and puts them on your computer . 
you can even skip that step and rip them directly from the cd to the player . 
( wo n't leave copy on your computer . ) 
the pros and cons of it : 
great price . 
the ipod costs more for the same amount of memory . 
i thought the software was decent enough - it was n't complicated to learn at all . 
the scroll button is sort of annoying to push - a nice button would be nicer but eh , not a big deal . 
it also stores data so i can see myself placing some data files on here . 
it is slightly larger than an ipod , no doubt about it . 
for me , that was the only drawback . 
i 'm really happy with this purchase . 
also , when i installed the software , it said that windows xp had n't approved something with the drivers , etc - and that continuing it install may cause instability . 
if you 're like me , that will definitely make you pause . 
after i reviewed the manual ( a pdf file included on the cd ) , i felt better because they warned you about the message and said it would n't cause problems and , in fact , it has n't . 
so if you have xp , be prepared for this and do n't be alarmed . 
if you are out for an mp3 player with a lot of memory and do not want to spend a ton of money , i think this is a great purchase and strongly recommend it . 
i would have liked to have given it 4 1/2 stars docking that 1/2 star only for the size . 
 what a beast . 
i got this a while ago knowing nothing about it . 
it is a beast . 
if i wasnt a runner i would take a bullet in the foot for my nomad jukebox . 
now heres the stuff you should know starting with the good things : the screen is really big and the blue light in the back is perfect , fast as hell in music transfer , controls are easy to use after mastering the scroll button , great sound and ive heard many mp3 players , a ton of different equilizer type deals on here . 
there are a couple things i didnt like though but nothing serious : a little larger than other mp3s but still light , the software takes some time to get used to ( maybe 10-15 mins ) , and this thing would definitely be destroyed with one fall . 
but it comes with a tank of a case and if you cut a piece out where the screen is you can always keep it in the case and still access everything . 
ive seen em all , the archos , dell , ipods , everything ... good price and great sound makes this one the best in my opinion . 
 yet another inferior knockoff . 
granted this is cheaper than an ipod . 
cheaper in every way . 
its far heavier and much larger which might not seem to matter except if you use it while running or keep it in your pocket . 
its far more difficult to select songs and has no easy to use on the fly playlist creation such as the new ipod not to mention it does n't sinc with contact lists , phone numbers , address books , ect. like the ipod ( which eliminated my need for any kind of palm device ) . 
it also has unproven battery life . 
everyone who says i can 't buy the ipod because after excessive use in a short time ( the man who made the ipod battery life video admitted that he had used it extensively every day and charged fully every night for those 18 months , conditions under which any rechargeable battery dies . 
use this for 18 months every day and see what happens , or look at a 2 year old electric razor and see if it holds the same charge as the first day you had it ) . 
while it is an alternative to the ipod and one of the few viable ones its just that , an alternative and why would anyone seek an alternative to something that really needs no alternative choice because theres nothing wrong and everything right with it . 
i 'd like to see how well a small company supports its mp3 player in 2 years when its battery dies as all rechargeable do . 
finally the software used to put all the songs into it is vastly inferior to itunes on two levels , first it is poorly integrated into the overall player and clunky to use especially with tagging and second the wma audio format sucks , flat out sucks in terms of sound quality compared with the vastly superior aac format the apple ipod uses and it sticks you with one of the sub par paid music services such as napster instead of allowing to use the itunes store , which , if you ever plan to pay for your music , is by far the best . 
before anyone says hey you have n't used the product , i have , my friend received one for christmas instead of an ipod and has since envied me for my vastly superior product . 
 good player , bad software . 
pros : 
* price and capacity 
* slick-looking design and improved interface 
* removable battery 
cons : 
* protective case completely useless as is since it obscures display window . 
had to cut out a window using a swiss army knife . 
how did this gigantic flaw go unnoticed by creative ? 
* scroll button more cumbersome than on earlier models . 
does n't always register push-button movement . 
* eax equalizer accentuates dimished quality of mp3 files . 
i have to rip everything as a 160 kbps wma file ( as opposed to 128 kbps mp3 ) to avoid hearing digital garbling . 
* does not provide enough volume when connected to larger headphones , or external receivers ( car radio ). 
* software is absolutely terrible : 
-- > will not automatically transfer songs with identical titles ( if you have live albums or greatest hits albums , this will cause you inordinate frustration ). 
-- > does not recognize player at random times , despite being connected and displaying player 's library . 
-- > too difficult to change genre / album / track information for large number of tracks . 
-- > you 'll be changing track information a lot because the cd database information utilized by the software is mediocre at best . 
if you have any multi-disc box sets , you 'll notice that the artist 's name , album name , and genre will often change with every disc . 
final verdict : 
a good player at a great price with terrible software that makes ripping and transferring way more difficult than it should be . 
 excellent way to carry your music collection ! 
after investigating a multitude of player options , i asked for and received the 60 gb zen xtra for christmas . 
despite its being slightly larger than the ipod , i must say i was surprised to see how small it was when i unwrapped the box ! 
i am ripping my cd collection into 160 kbps wma files ; this gives an average of around 60-65 mb per cd , good for about 900 cds in the ~ 57,000 mb of free memory available to me . 
file transfers are fast , nearly a song per second via usb 2.0 . 
several people have complained of difficulty transferring multiple songs with the same title . 
this is possible ! ! 
since the zen xtra does not use a folder structure , the " duplicate name " problem stems from the actual file name , not from the song 's title / artist / album . 
solution ? 
simply configure the mediasource software ( or windows media player , or your ripper-du-jour ) to create file names that include artist and ( especially ) album names in addition to track names . 
using this method , i have not once encountered a situation where a track was rejected , and i have plenty of duplicate tracks on live and compilation albums . 
even if there happened to be identical track titles on the same disc , you could still edit the file name manually and get them both onto the player . 
my one issue with the mediasource software is that , despite pulling id3 tag data from the cdds service , the ripping process fails to populate the " year " field . 
weird . 
how does it sound ? 
to my ears , a 160 kbps wma file sounds just as good as the source cd , and the zen xtra sounds just as good as a portable cd player . 
no complaints there . 
the eax features are pretty cool , as well , as creative has included a number of eq adjustments that , for example , compensate for the extraneous noise encountered in a car or on a train . 
navigation could be better , but there is n't really anything the zen xtra can 't do once you 've gotten comfortable with it . 
at the end of the day , what i wanted was a large-capacity player which allows me to easily play any album from my collection wherever i go , and the zen xtra 's combination of price , capacity and features easily meets those criteria . 
 cd collection in your pocket . 
i got this for christmas , and it is a great gift . 
i have been ripping songs into it for the past few weeks , and the ease of use is wonderful . 
the memory will hold an amazing amount of songs , my entire collection of cd 's will all fit on this great little tiny piece of digital fun . 
plusses are the easy to remove battery and the terrific sound produced by the nomad . 
the only two things that stop me from giving it 5 stars are the ho-hum software that comes with the system , and the traveling case it comes with . 
this is a powerful piece of equipment . 
it is great to no longer wonder what music i want to take with me for a cross country flight or a two week trip - now i just take everything . 
ripping the songs , even with my 1.1 usb connection is still very quick , and the quality is very good . 
considering the price and specs , this might be the best buy out there for a large memory mp3 player . 
before jumping on the ipod train , take a look at this marvel . 
 buy an extended warranty - you 'll need it ! 
i 'll state up front that i do not own a zen xtra and have not used one at all . 
but you might find my review useful , nonetheless . 
i purchased a jukebox 3 from creative almost a year ago . 
two months ago , an internal part failed ( not due to customer abuse ; it just failed ) . 
i got an rma from creative , sent my player in to them for repairs . 
it took them twice as long to get to my unit as they said . 
moreover , they want a total of $ 107 to repair it . 
( this includes the $ 20 that you have to pay up front , just to get them to look at your player . ) 
if creative offered a 12-month warranty on their mp3 players , i 'd be covered . 
but they offer only a 3-month warranty ( on all of their players , including the zen xtra ) . 
so i 'm screwed . 
but you do n't have to be . 
if you buy a creative mp3 player , be sure to get the optional extended warranty . 
or better yet , buy from another company that stands behind their products with a 12-month warranty . 
it 's really a shame , because otherwise , creative mp3 players are very good , and have the best sound quality of any players on the market . 
 the best ipod alternative . 
i shopped around for a while before buying a hard-drive mp3 player . 
i read reviews , compared specs , and visited user forums . 
despite all the hype about ipods , i knew i wanted something different , because i wanted more storage than the ipod i could afford would offer , and because i wanted more flexibility in where i purchased music online . 
after some consideration i chose the 40gb nomad zen xtra from creative , and i have not been disappointed . 
i purchased it at a retail store , and got an extended warranty . 
first , the battery is replacable by the user , because creative intended it to be - unlike apple with the ipod . 
it was easy enough to remove the front plate , and there was only one way the battery could be inserted . 
creative also sells batteries via its website , so there 's no shipping off my player and waiting for it to be sent back to me with the new battery . 
the new organizer software that ships with the nomad zen xtra could n't be easier to use . 
point the " media sniffer " to your music files and let it do the rest . 
you can create playlists , drag & drop songs and playlists to your player , and rip directly from cd to your player . 
and with usb 2.0 , transferring music to your player is incredibly easy . 
you can also delete songs from the player itself , and create playlists - on the fly - on your player . 
the sound is great , and the volume is more than satisfactory for commutes and shutting out external noise . 
i thought i 'd have to buy a set of headphones to use with it , but the included earbuds work quite well . 
they could be more comfortable , but no complaints in the sound department . 
i 've played around with the equalizer settings and am satisfied at the range of choices i have there too . 
there are plenty other features that i have n't checked out , but i 'm sure i soon will . 
it ships with a carrying case that has a belt clip on it . 
however , i do n't like to carry it on my belt because the clip is n't secure and the case can slip off . 
it happened to me once . 
so now i keep it in my pocket . 
also , the carrying case that came with mine covers up the display , so even though the side controls are reachable , i have to open it up to see the display . 
it would have been better to have some sort of window on teh carrying case , so you could see the display without opening it . 
that 's my only real complaint about the nomad zen xtra , though . 
 important zen information . 
this player is an overall disappointment with a couple of big flaws that potential buyers should be wary of ; and all readers need to know about a third party software company that resolves virtually all of the creative mediasource file transfer issues . 
zen good points : 
1 . i achieved my basic objective ; my entire cd collection is on a portable device with lots of room to store more . 
2 . most mp3 players have a gap between the end of one track and the start of the next ; it 's annoying in music that is intended to be continuous . 
the zen has minimal stoppage between tracks ; when listening to music that continues from one track to the next the gap is just a hesitation - a slightly audible click ; if i am not listening for the progress from one track to the next i do n't even notice the click . 
flaws : 
1. creative mediasource software is ok to rip , catalog & burn music if you are starting from scratch ; but i used musicmatch to rip my cds before i bought the zen ( 278 cds ; 3,400 tracks ; 12.5 gb of music all ripped at 128bps ) and guess what ? 
mediasource did not recognize my tags ! 
my choices at that moment were to manually re-tag my music or re-rip using mediasource . 
i do n't think so . 
btw , if you * are * ripping your cds , mediasource accesses the cddb music catalog over the internet and the few cds i experimented with all provided good quality [ correct & uncluttered ] tag information . 
2 . despite most reviewers giving kudos to the zen for music quality , i experienced a flaw using eax . 
after about 45 mins of listening there was audible static in the player . 
when i turned eax off the static disappeared . 
when i turned eax back on the static was also not present . 
creative are * the * sound people for computers , i can 't understand why eax would introduce static . 
is eax faulty ?
is my unit defective ? 
was i just unlucky at that moment ? 
was it a full moon that night ? 
i have n't figured it out yet . 
3 . mediasource is an application with serious user interface flaws . 
do not underestimate this in your purchase decision . 
many reviewers refer to it as " clunky " or " difficult " - heed their warnings . 
some amazon reviewers say it corrrupted their music files ; 
i did n't use it long enough to know , but clearly you need to use it with caution . 
4 .the zen * stores * data files , but does not allow a folder structure nor does it allow documents to be opened or programs to be launched from its disk ( they must be copied to another hard drive to be launched ) . 
in other words , the zen is not a convenient data storage device ; only buy the capacity you need for your music collection ( see point 1. for some sizing information ) . 
my goal of using it as a music player * and * data storage device has not been met ; do n't make the same mistake . 
5 . the zen does not have a stop button ! 
you can stop playback by pressing 2 buttons , first the pause button , then the " next track " or " previous track " button . 
but this is * not documented * in the zen manual - neither the hard copy nor the cd version . 
to discover this i had to read about 10 online reviews ( with many complaints about the lack of stop button ) before i found one reviewer who was smart enough to both figure it out & document it . 
6 . the zen nx battery requires the ac adapter to recharge ; it does not charge by usb cable ; this is not tragic , but usb recharging would be a convenient ( additional ) choice . 
if you are buying a zen xtra check whether the battery recharges via usb ; it does not on the zen nx . 
7 . mediasource did not install on my personal notebook . 
it referred to a " microsoft jet database engine " error and the install program suggested i download a service pack from the ms website to fix the problem ; 
i did that and re-installed the software but had the same error . 
creative provided e-mail support ; 
i followed their advice but that failed , too . 
i experimented with installing mediasource on 2 other computers at home and it worked fine . 
so it is probably " just bad luck " on my part that the personal notebook i own had this install error . 
however , it did motivate me to find a work-around solution . 
third party software to the rescue 
after much frustration ( above ) i found the notmad explorer ; cute product name for software that resolves virtually all of the creative mediasource file transfer & organization problems . 
i am not associated with the company , i am not providing a url , but search for notmad and you should find it pretty easily . 
this provides drag & drop transfers of music between the computer & zen ; each time it transfers music to the zen it asks if you want to generate a playlist ; it allows playlists developed in other software to be transferred to the zen ( . 
m3u files are used by most mp3 players like musicmatch and winamp , but not creative - without notmad you need to manually recreate your playlists ) ; it does n't care what software you use to rip or catalog your music - creative or any other company - all my 12.5 gb of music were transferred to the zen with correct tags - hooray ! 
notmad has other features too , but this is not an advertisement so please see the company 's web site for more information ... 
conclusion : 
if i knew then what i know now i would have paid the extra to get an ipod & avoided the zen . 
given that i already have the zen the only reason i am happy with it is because of the notmad software . 
and i am hoping the static i heard when using eax was a blip ... 
to summarize , i am using the creative zen as a mobile device ; 
i am using musicmatch to rip & catalog ( and if i choose , download ) music ; 
i am using notmad explorer to move music & playlists between the zen & my computer . 
the only creative software i am using is the device driver ( s ). 
 how did i get by without this ? 
this is one of those items that , at first glance , looked cool but did n't really ring a bell with me . 
now that i own it , however , i can 't imagine being without it ! 
i have stored around 60 cd 's ( at 160kbps ) on this and have barely touched the available memory . 
the sound quality is fantastic ( cd quality ) and it is really great to carry this around instead of stacks of cd 's or tapes ! 
it is exceedingly simple to navigate around in this device . 
i did n't read a thing about how to operate it -- it was just intuitive . 
i was cruising around the device within 20 minutes . 
the pc-side software can be goofy and takes a little getting used to but it 's not as bad as some reviewers have indicated . 
one other plus is that napster now supports this device via their software . 
my one recommendation to creative is to get some marketing people to work on the names of these things . 
they have a whole bunch of devices that all have the same-sounding name ( and they are long ) . 
whereas some folks have the " ipod " , i have the " nomad jukebox zen xtra " ( not to be confused with the " nomad jukebox zen nx " ) . 
minor gripe . 
i can 't imagine why i would spend hundreds of dollars more to have an ipod . 
 great memory , quality ? 
i just bought one and returned it as defective for good reason . 
in a quick summation , here is what i found . 
+ the memory ( 40 gb ) is staggering . 
i had downloaded about 1000 songs and had room for another 9000 ! 
it may have taken several years to fill this up . 
+ i had no problem using musicmatch software already on my computer to load songs and albums onto this unit 
+ screen was good , easy to read 
+ / - sound quality was good but it was going to take some tweakings with settings to try to make it great . 
- the software that came with it was tough to load . 
i got weird messages about it not being ok 'd by microsoft ( or something like that ) , then i thought it failed to load , then it loaded . 
- the top that covered the battery kept poping off without much of a touch near the bottom latch . 
not good if you 're taking this traveling . 
the top did not fit well into the unit . ( felt defective ) 
- the cover that came with it did n't fit very well 
- the flywheel you use for most of the navigation was n't in tightly and it was uneven as far as the amount of pressure to make it engage . 
i was n't sure how long it would take before it would break . 
- this did not feel like quality construction and i was n't sure how long it would last . 
 great product great price . 
i spent much time debating on whether i should go with the zen xtra or the ipod . 
i decided to save the $ $ and opted for the zen xtra ... and i was not disappointed . 
the player is intuitive and outputs great sound quality . 
navigation is easy and i found that syncing files from the player to the computer ( and vice versa ) was easy too . 
many have complained about the software included but in my opinion it 's easy to use and effective . 
i love this player and am extremely happy with my decision . 
i cannot recommend it enough ! ! 
 flimsy product . 
i recently bought the nomad jukebox zen xtra , and did n't even get as far as charging the battery . 
the construction of the player is the cheesiest i have ever seen -- the front panel refused to clip in correctly , leaving a noticeable gap between the panel and base of the player . 
this gap allowed the front panel to fly off after barely being touched . 
i can 't comment on the quality of the audio , because it was back at the store before i ripped a single cd . 
i 'm not willing to accept shoddy construction on something i paid over 250 dollars for . 
if the casing of the player is this bad , i can 't image that the hardware is of very good quality . 
do n't be pulled in by the great price -- you get what you pay for , and there 's a reason this model is so cheap . 
 the 3 ( ? ! ) month warranty should be a warning . 
like many reviewers , i really wanted to like this product . 
the price / performance looked just right . 
when i bought it late last year , there were enough reviews that i knew the navigation wheel and software would be less than ideal , but it sounded like a fair tradeoff . 
boy was i wrong . 
reading the reviews , it looks as though people really love this device for a month or two and then come to hate it . 
that 's been my experience . 
if i 'd been paying attention , i would have noticed the 3 month warranty . 
but i did n't because i 'm used to electronic products having a 12 month warranty . 
now i know better . 
i 've had this thing just over a month and the headphone jack has already come loose . 
a $ 300 device and they skimped on the headphone jack ? 
so now i 've got to call their customer " service " ( of course , no 800 number ) to send the thing back . 
from the other reviews i 've read , it sounds like that wo n't be the end of my troubles . 
i fully expect it to go bad again in the same or some other way in the next 6 months because , as other reviewers have pointed out , the construction is pretty flimsy . 
now let 's talk about the software . 
like other reviewers , installation was hell . 
subsequent behavior even worse . 
about 10 % of the time it can 't find the device when i attach it to my pc . 
after i had it a couple weeks , it got into a state where it could never find the device , no matter how often i rebooted my pc , reset the device , reloaded drivers , etc , etc. creative 's online support was no help at all . 
in fact , i 'd have to rate it among the worst i 've ever encountered . 
finally , i uninstalled and reinstalled the software , the usual measure of last resort for this sort of thing . 
to my amazement , even that process was error-prone . 
it took several days of attempts before things finally " worked " again and i have n't a clue why . 
that does n't leave me with a good feeling about its future stability . 
i did buy the notmad software a week ago and found that a vast improvement . 
but that 's a moot point now . 
my gut tells me the nomad will in the long run be , at best , a 40gb portable hard drive , albeit one on which i can 't create folders , or , at worst , a very expensive lesson in companies never to buy products from again ( i have their audigy sound card and find it in many ways equally frustrating ) . 
my gut tells me i 'll also end up buying an ipod . 
which means that in trying to save a few hundred dollars , i 'll end up spending more than twice that . 
be forewarned . 
i would have given a 3 to 5 star review in my first few weeks , depending on how mad i felt about the crummy software . 
now , even 1 star seems like i 'm giving creative the benefit of the doubt . 
 very bad company . 
i will never buy a creative product again . 
i purchased a jukebox , it got fried while being recharged , they asked for $ 20usd just to look at it and said that they would charge me for repaing the damned thing . 
no way , now i have an ipod and i 'm a very happy man . 
also bought a soundblaster card that they sold for the mac . 
within months they stopped supporting the new mac os . 
what kind of a company does that ! 
 great value & great sound ; 
carry your entire collection ! 
pros : 
1 ) great sound ( > 98db signal-to-noise ratio beats ipod 's " unspecified " ratio ) and good power output allow the zen xtra to drive large head-phones as well as external speakers . 
with my sennheiser 497 headphones , the volume is loud enough at 12 ( max is 20 ) . 
the player works well with my sony srs-a 202 powered speakers . 
2 ) the player user interface ( ui ) is intuitive to use , and allows easy navigation of a large or small collection . 
3 ) the nomad explorer ( winxp style interface ) works well to transfer files back and forth to use the nomad as an external although the tech support web-site states that the primary intended purpose of the player is as a player . 
the nomad explorer provide most of the functionality offered by 3rd party programs like notmad . 
4 ) usb 2.0 means fast data transfers ( 1 song / sec ! ). 
5 ) the cheap , user-replaceable battery ( $ 50 from creative ) is a great advantage over the ipod 's battery which costs $ 100 to replace . 
6 ) excellent battery life - 14 hours beats ipod 's . 
7 ) chic look and good build - the player comes in a compact form with a metal face plate . 
i use it primarily in the provided protective case although i have dropped it about 3 feet from my desk ( by accident ) as well as have played it outdoors in - 30 fahrenheit weather ( by design ) and it has continued to work fine . 
8 ) creative mediasource , although not as sleek looking as windows mediaplayer , is effective in organizing your collection and is linked to a good cddb service ( gracenotes ). 
a. the cddb downloads information for the cd that you insert such that you do not have to type in the track information such as album , artist , song title , etc. 
i do n't always care for gracenotes ' genre listings but it allows easy editing of id3 tags . 
b. fast mediasource cd ripping - takes about 40 seconds for a cd on my pentium 4 pc ( 2.4 ghz with 1gb ram ) with 52x drive . 
c. i do love audio sync which allows a one-click synchronization between the player and the music collection on the computer . 
9 ) wake-up feature that allows you to set up the player to wake up and play selected music at a specified time . 
i have it connected to speakers for a nice musical alarm in the morning . 
10 ) multiple play modes - tracks in order of album , shuffle , etc. , is standard on all jukebox players but worth noting that the zen xtra is not deficient in this matter . 
11 ) minimal pause between songs - less than that on other devices - good achievement for a hard-drive based player 
12 ) big storage - my entire cd collection in one small device ( 5717 songs , 491 albums and counting ) ! 
cons : 
1 ) player is not plug and play - need to install nomad explorer first and mediasource to transfer files and i had to be patient as i was used to winxp detecting the player and dragging and dropping the music files into it . 
2 ) music organization is based on id3 ( by genre , artist , album , etc. ) and this can be a problem for older downloaded music files with missing or incorrect id3 information . 
this was not a problem for me as most of my collection was ripped from my own cds and i updated the id3 tags on my downloaded music . 
3 ) folders cannot be created for the audio files . 
this is unnecessary with id3 tags but people who like to organize their music in folders will not like the zen as the audio files do not allow subfolders but rely on id3 tags . 
the workaround is to update id3 tags on your files ( through mediasource ) but it can be a hassle if you have many such music files . 
4 ) no fm or voice recording - these would have been nice extras . 
5 ) lack of good accessories - this is more of an oversight of creative 's marketing . 
both creative and third-party powered speakers work great , as do third-party wireless transmitters . 
a dock is unnecessary as the charger and usb cable do the necessary . 
6 ) the case occludes the display screen when it is closed . 
i would have liked to be able to see what is playing without having to open the case . 
7 ) some people have problems with the flip switch on the bottom that releases the player cover - has not been an issue for me and is immaterial if you use the case as the case covers the switch . 
experience : 
once i got home with it i had to first install creative mediasource and figure out how it transferred files to the player . 
this required patience as i was used to winxp detecting the player and dragging and dropping the music files into it ( which i could do with my flash player ) . 
i did already have mediasource installed due to owning the creative audigy 2 soundcard but i did need to re-install it from the supplied cd as the older version did not have the connector to the zen . 
also , i downloaded the latest firmware upgrade and software updates . 
recommendations : 
1 ) buy an extended coverage if offered by the retailer as this device has moving parts and is essentially a portable hard-drive . 
2 ) buy a good pair of head-phones unless you already own one . 
3 ) use files with id3 tags - not a problem if your cds were ripped within the last year . 
4 ) a set of speakers and a wireless transmitter are accessories that will add to your player 's usability ( the latter will allow you to play it on your car radio , home receiver , etc. ) 
5 ) handle the player with care - it is not meant to be dropped . 
resources : http://www.nomadworld.com, http://www.nomadness.net 
pros summary : 
great sound ; good interface ; replaceable , powerful battery ; good software ; wake-up , sleep timers ; multiple play modes 
cons summary : 
not plug & play ; relies on id3 ; no fm or recording 
bottom-line : 
can 't beat carrying 500-cd collection with me wherever i go . 
my favorite is to play " any track " - am rediscovering my music ! 
also love waking up to music with attached speakers . 
 headphone jack . 
i got the 40gb jukebox zen xtra for christmas . 
so , i 've had it for a month , and the headphone jack went out . 
i called creative and they said to send it in and they would decide if it in warranty . 
it 'll take 10-15 business days for them to decide form when they get it . 
nothing but hassle with this company . 
what kind of product goes out within a month ? 
 those who do n't like it are ipod lovers and are in denial . 
this thing does its job . 
i 've compared and compared and compared . 
it was either the 40gb ipod or this one . 
i felt better with this one since it had the shuffle feature and i 'm not too keen on www.ipodsdirtysecret.com. 
the longest that i have n't charged it was maybe 3 days and that 's turning it off every now and then . 
replacement battery is $ 50 compared to ipod 's $ 150 . 
cons : 
the only thing i do n't like about this is the cover does suck . 
i dropped it from the couch , landed on carpet and the cover and battery flew out . 
it 's kinda heavy , kinda like having a walkman . 
headphones suck , i would invest in some cool ones since it has the eax feature . 
the software sucks . 
it overrides songs so you have to go in there and put it your own titles especially if you have remixes . 
also the feature to automatically put in the song information is n't always accurate . 
you discover this later when you 're listening to a song and it 's the wrong title , causing you to rename everything on your own . 
 not what i 'd hoped . 
i was prepared to love it . 
i 've had this thing for less than a month , treated it quite well , never dropped it , and the headphone jack is all screwed up . 
now i have to return it and rip all my music again . 
good thing i got a replacement plan . 
wish it included somebody to re-rip all the songs . 
reading other reviews , i do n't think the replacement one will be any better . 
i 'm not looking forward to ripping my entire collection every month or two . 
maybe i 'll get lucky with the next one . 
kind of bulky and the wheel is awkward , but i can deal with that . 
software definitely sucks , hangs up my notebook about half the time , but i do n't mind buying notmad . 
i am annoyed that the player 's not automatically recognized as a hard drive . 
i do n't want to install software and drivers on every computer i 'm ever at . 
makes me use it much less than i otherwise would . 
looking at the glowing reviews from people that have had this for a week or two , i kind of wish people would wait until they 've had a product a little while to review it . 
i loved it until it broke , but less than a month is not an acceptible period of time for something to work . 
 not durable enough for this road warrior . 
i loved this product when i first got it - great sound , easy to use ( even though i agree that the software was n't the best ) and held enough songs to suit any mood . 
i was willing to live with the larger size ( inconvenient on the road ) but the durability was a big zero . 
always carried it in a case in by briefcase but one day the hard drive just zapped . 
tech support could n't figure it out and gave up . 
i am disappointed and looking elsewhere for something that can withstand the " rigor " of a business traveler . 
 the best jukebox mp3 player , hands-down . 
i bought the 30gb zen xtra from a well-known national electronics store as soon as i saw they were advertising it for $ 219.99 . 
the combination of the price , storage size , and player features makes this player the best on the market . 
the biggest drawback that people have about the zen xtra is the software . 
fact is , it could n't be easier to use . 
these models now ship with creative 's mediasource program , which allows you to highlight the files on your computer that you want to add to your zen xtra , click a button , and transfer it straight to your player . 
assuming you have filled in all the id3 tags on your mp3s , you will not have any problem finding them on your zen xtra . 
sound quality on this is amazing , as with all creative products . 
even leaving it on the default setting ( without the eax enhancements ) produces crystal clear playback . 
the menu allows you to search for files by artist , genre , and album quite easily . 
the battery stays charged for a long time , and takes no more than 2 or 3 hours at most to fully recharge via the included ac adapter . 
connect the player to your computer ( via usb ) , open up mediasource , and you can listen to your stored mp3s as they stream directly from the xtra ! 
get those mp3s off your hard drive , save space , and enjoy your massive music library . 
awesome feature . 
usb 2.0 transfer is insanely fast . 
minor complaints : 1 ) even though the music is sorted via id3 tag on the player , the option to search for music contained in a folder is unavailable . 
that is , if a folder on your computer called " mp3 " has slayer ( thrash metal ) , stravinsky ( classical ) , and ice cube ( rap ) in it , you will only be able to play the contents of that folder by searching for the artists or genres manually . 
the zen xtra will transfer the files to the player , but not the folder name . 
not a big hassle as many would have you think . 
2 ) having unfilled id3 tags will cause music to be potentially placed in a folder called " unknown . " 
i would recommend against using id3v2 tags , and stick with id3v1 only . 
when the previous versions of the zens were shipped with musicmatch , people had this problem because musicmatch creates both sets of tags , which seem to confuse the zen xtra . 
take the time to fill in those tags ! 
3 ) with mediasource being so easy , i found no use for the bundled nomad explorer software . 
in fact , it caused my system to hang more times than not , so i uninstalled it and stuck with mediasource 100 % . 
so what are you waiting for ? 
get one now ! 
 not worth the trouble . 
i received this as a gift for christmas . 
my first impression was positive . 
after using it for a few weeks ( the amount of time before the hard drive crashed ) it revealed a few of its shortcommings . 
first , the sound quality is okay , but ( as at least one other reviewer has mentioned ) the eax can cause audio interference after about 30 minutes . 
at first i thought it was my headphones but it was not . 
it was just a problem with the player . 
second , the menu system and controls are poorly designed . 
the toggle button that is used to scroll is poorly designed and does not work well . 
the general button placement is not very user friendly . 
this would not be a great problem if you did n't have so much info to scroll through on a regular basis . 
third , the poor design continues with the case . 
the flap completely covers the screen because there is no window to see it . 
it also covers over the power jack when closed . 
after the first one fatally crashed , the replacement did not work . 
i bought an ipod and am very happy with it . 
 creative nomad zen xtra 40 gb . 
overall , a good buy for the price . 
easy enough to navigate through , although i 'd prefer a sturdier button besides the thumbwheel scroll / pushbutton . 
my biggest complaint is the battery life or lack there of . 
there is no way the battery supplied lasts 14 hours ! 
at best , i 've gotten 3 hours + . 
i 've tried draining it until it wo n't turn on & recharging it overnight . 
no difference . 
if you 're intrested in buying a spare battery it 'll run you another $ 50 , a little steep i thought . 
i 've also had the nomad zen lock-up several times . 
the good news is if you can 't get it to reset / reboot you can still pull the battery and reinstall it . 
that 's a huge plus by itself compared to the infamous ipod and similar mp3 players where the battery is permanently installed & removing it voids the warranty . 
the nomad zen could use a little sturdier construction like the archos jukeboxes or some kind of shock resistant case . 
at the very least , a sturdier more protective carrying case would be nice . 
pros : huge storage capacity for the price , easy to navigate , can modify existing playlists on the fly , has a removable battery 
cons : 
battery life is about 1/4 of that advertised , no operators manual available for any of the nomad zen players ( on or off-line ) , occasional software lockups , replacement battery is expensive 
note : about 2gb ( 5 % ) of the advertised 40gb of storage capacity is used for the operating software ( firmware ) . 
this is nothing new , every mp3 player , memory card , etc. , used for digital media today has some kind of preloaded operating software on it . 
 a possible discontinued item ? 
what 's going on creative labs ? 
is it a coincidence that i no longer can get any of your nomad zen xtras ( worst name ever ) at best buy and now the 60gb nomad xtra is " sold out " or more likely " discontinued " at the almighty amazon.com ? 
hmmmmm .... 
 hard disk mp3 players . 
if you read reviews for the 4 main contenders in this market - the ipod , creative zen , rio karma and iriver ihp - you 'll notice that each has their pros and cons ; none are perfect and you should decide whether you want to take to take the plunge now or later . 
if your view in life is that you are going to pay $ x00 to get a device then it must be near ideal - ruggedly constructed , fault proof , good product support , easy to use software - then do yourself a favor and do n't buy yet . 
all the products have drawbacks and are not mature yet ; if you expect value and reliability then wait a while . 
if you are ok paying $ x00 for something that can be used now , but is likely to both get better and cost less in the future then try to determine which device is the lesser of evils for you . 
ipod clearly has the most buzz . 
great design and looks cool . 
most people love the appearance and praise the touch sensitive buttons . 
it has a hold button to deactivate the buttons to avoid accidents ; however , enough reviewers have complained that the hold button is easily broken and then the device can 't be used . 
some of the more geeky ( non-apple type ) reviewers complain that the scrollwheel is annoying after a while and they resent being forced into this apple-like interface . 
everyone complains about the non-replaceable battery , yet this is the price of sturdy construction . 
ipod can be used as an external disk , and apparently stores files without problem . 
however , the music and data are apparently not separated ; ipod reviewers complain about " white noise " in random feedback mode that comes from appointments / contacts created on the ipod during synchronization . 
synchronizing music among computers , if you have more than one , seems to be an issue ; research this before buying if you have multiple computers you want to be synchronized . 
reviews for sound quality are generally ( but not universally ) positive . 
reviews of apple 's support are generally poor ; they seem to address issues in warranty , which covers a short time after delivery / pickup of item . 
after that it seems like you 're on your own . 
ipod has no stop button ; when new users mention this ipod veterans call it " unnecessary " and " so 20th century " . 
creative zen feedback suffers from construction quality , poor product support , difficulty of using the scroll wheel and reasonably consistent feedback about problems with the headphone jack . 
construction quality is a difficult item . 
the zen has a detachable face plate that allows the battery to be replaced . 
what is added in functionality ( battery replacement ) detracts in build quality as the face plate is prone to popping off . 
drop if just a few inches on a hard surface and the faceplate pops off ( but not if it 's in its case ) . 
many reviewers say the faceplate simply did n't fit well so they returned the zen . 
feedback on creative 's product support is universally poor ; this is not limited to the zen , it applies to all the company 's products . 
the scroll wheel is finicky ; it works most of the time but there is a learning curve for pressing it just right ; new users say they have 50 % - 75 % success rate ; some find it so frustrating that they just return the device . 
the creative software is awkward / difficult to use and just plain does n't load on some computers . 
enough people have reported that their headphone jack does n't work after a month of using the device to believe that creative has some inbuilt manufacturing or quality control problem . 
the zen does n't support folders so it is not really a storage device ; even with third party software that " creates " folders , documents and programs can 't be launched from the zen , so it is not a hard disk , it 's a storage device at best . 
reviews for sound quality are generally ( but not universally ) positive . 
the zen has no stop button . 
veteran zen users have explained how to stop if that 's what you want . 
the rio karma feedback suffers from sensitivity in the hard disk . 
it seems like movement , even small movement , causes skipping in playback and even the device freezing . 
if you plan to carry the device around ( it is a mobile device , right ? ) then this is something you might want to think about . 
karma gets consistently good reviews for sound quality and connectivity from its docking device , which has rca output jacks and ethernet jacks for connectivity . 
usability ( button usage , feature selection , menu structure , display size and quality ) also has good feedback . 
repair seems to be an issue ; some say the repair do n't exist 
- you just have to buy a new player . 
perhaps because of its smaller user base there is also a lack of accessories . 
like the zen , the karma does not support folders and is not designed to be a data storage device . 
it only comes in 20gb ; enough for most people , not for those with large collections ripped at high sampling rates . 
the karma does have a stop button . 
there are n't many reviews for the iriver ihp . 
those that have it like it . 
the only complaint seems to be that the disk rotation is slow , leading to longer delays in some functions ( playback and even a slow display of the menu ? ) . 
otherwise feedback seems to be good . 
no comments on reliability , warranty , repairs , accessories . 
no-one mentions whether there is a stop button , but the photos do n't show one . 
none of these are perfect . 
if you have the appetite choose the one that you think has the least deficiencies or is best suited to you . 
accept that there will be better devices ( or new generations of these ones ) in a year or two that will cost less . 
if that is for you then pay the money , learn from the experience and you 'll be a more informed buyer when you buy device # 2 . 
if you are n't into paying $ x00 to learn and experiment , or the cons outweigh the pros , then wait a year or so . 
 good for a little while , but .. . 
sure , this thing is definitely more cost-effective than an ipod . 
but with a low price , comes lower quality . 
our special friends at creative gave this thing good sound quality , great features , long battery life , and an unbeatable price . 
the catch is it 's built like a piece of crap . 
it lasted about 1 1/2 weeks . 
i did n't abuse it , i charged it every day , but the headphone jack just sort of fizzled out . 
i tried re-setting it , i tried just about every pair of headphones in my house ( 10 pairs ) , and nothing worked . 
so i contacted customer service at creative , but they said , " if the product seems broken , we cannot help , " or something to that effect . 
wow . 
do n't get me wrong , the thing was like heaven for about a week . 
if you want a quality mp3 player , splurge on an ipod . 
if you really need to save , buy this thing on amazon , they eventually gave me a full refund . 
i bought myself an rca mp3-cd player , and i 'm happy with that until a cheap , worthwhile mp3 player coomes out . 
 software problem . 
i bought the player this week and i like it by far . 
this is my fourth mp3 player ( creative nomad jukebox2 and 3 , rio chie , and this one ) , and my third player from creative . 
here 's something you have to know before you considering about buying this one . 
pro : 1 . 
removable and cheap battery - a li battery usually works properly for 1-3 years . 
my friend has an i-pod for about 2 years and the battery has so so messed up . 
his i-pod can only play for a couple of hours with a fully recharging now . 
2 . 
value : comparing data storage with price . 
3 . 
size and style : 
the appearance is okayed ( at least not ugly ) . 
the size is small ( just a little bit bigger than an i-pod . ) 
4 . 
easy to use : a lot of reviews has mentioned about this 
con : 
the software , mediasource , cannot work on my pc . ( laptop , intel p4-2.0 , xp os ) . 
a tons of reveiws has reported this problem and the same here . 
in fact , each of my creative mp3 players had software problem in the first place . 
however , the creative lab did come out new update to fix their software problems . 
i am crossing my finger and wish they will fix the problem . 
ps : ( mediasource provides similar functions with ms mediaplay such like cd ripping , tagging , music database managing , music file transfering , and more ) 
now i use ms mediaplayer , musicmatch ( free downladed ) , and " explorer / my computer / grab files from disk c or d into the player " to replace the mediasource . 
in short , this player is good at size , value , hardware design but really bad at its software 
 a great player , excellent sound quality , hovewer , has flaws . 
alright , well i read alot of these reviews , and i read alot of bad and good things about this player . 
well to say , i had a very bad history with players . 
one broke , one got stolen , and then i bought the riovolt sp - 350 . 
if you are planning to buy that player , do not ! 
that player is a complete piece of sh ***. 
i returned it once , then i sent it back , and it is crap . 
now getting back to this . 
i ordered this player for christmas , and so far i have it for only 2 weeks . 
now as others said , so far this player is an awesome player , there are flaws . 
cons : 
1 . 
the display is awesome , you can see everything you want and read it clearly 
2 . 
huge storage space , i loaded my entire collection of music , which isnt that much , 400 songs , and still have 26 gb , out of the 28 provided to you . 
( 28 not 30 because software itself takes space ) . 
and those songs mostly are 320 kbps. 
3 . 
the sound is awesome , but if u put it too loud , depends on yoursound quality , the sound might crack . 
4 . 
with eax on , you can modify your sound , with 4 different presets , which is pretty good , you can get different variations with it . 
5 . 
if you use software correctly , put in all the id3 tags , you will get an awesome database collection , from which you can easily access your songs . 
you can also search for your song , which is good . 
6 . 
i dont know what other people are saying , but the software is awesome . 
you can easily access ur files , and easily fill in the id3 tags , which can take a while with a big collection of music , but if your not lazy , you will do it without a problem . 
and i read today that you can also have online fill out the id3 , so its not a problem . 
7 . 
battery recharge , is an awesome thing , because it recharges in only like 2-3 hours . 
8 . 
when you turn on your player , the player turns on really fast , and the music continues to play , as you left it when you were turning it off . 
9 . 
you can manage your profile , change the contrast of backlight , make different type of display , either list or tabbed . 
you can do other different things with it such as choose what kind of " now playing " interface , you can see the interface as modern or classical . 
there is an alarm , i still havent used it yet , but it should be good . 
there is a clock , and date , which can get helpful . 
10 . 
the player has firmware , which will remove the glitches , if there are any . 
11 . 
the music plays awesome , never skips , even if u run for a bit , so you can listen to music without interruption . 
cons : 
1 . 
the one and most major thing that i was dissapointed with , in this player , is the battery life . 
the product manufacturer promised me 14 hours , and what i recieved was 6-8 . 
5 hours max. i did it like this 
eax on : 6 hours eax off : 8.5 hours 
2 . 
the panel seems like it will come off very easily as other people have said . 
3 . 
you need the software to actually transfer files 
4 . 
the player has its minor glitches like for example when i turn it on , 60 percent of the time , it sais , shutting down , which means i have to turn off , and turn it on again , which is not to my likings . 
also , the player sometimes freezes , not a very big problem , but can also be annoying . 
( but as any hard drive , all of them freeze at certain points ) 
well thats about it , and as people said in earlier previews that the headfone jack gets messed up , stil havent happened to me , and i hope it doesnt . 
 easy to use , massive storage space , sounds great . 
and also , it 's priced very affordably . 
with 40gb of storage i have about 7,500 songs on the player ( everything music file i have is on there ) with room for about 2,500 more . 
a similarily priced 15gb ipod would n't have been nearly enough room . 
having my entire music collection is great when travelling ( both on plane and car trips ) and i do n't have to decide what to bring or copy onto the player -- it 's all there . 
having to copy / delete files would be time-consuming and is rendered a non-issue with 40gb of storage . 
the software interface supplied was very easy to use but i went ahead and got red chair 's " notmad " software because of some advanced features i wanted . 
the sound is great even with the supplied earbuds -- but i find earbuds uncomfortable so i use different headphones . 
on planes i use a splitter so two headphones can be plugged in for two people and the sound is equally good . 
sound settings can be adjusted for personal preference . 
accessing files by artist and album ( i mostly look things up by artist ) is easy and intuitive . 
possibly the biggest advantage this player has ( if price was n't enough ) is the fact that the user can replace the battery him / herself by opening the lid and popping in the new battery . 
since batteries do run out on everything , this will also be a big money-saver since ipods , irivers , rca , dell , all have built-in batteries that need to be replaced by a technician ( apple charges 100 bones for the battery replacement ) . 
try before you buy if at all possible : although i am a mac addict now for over a decade and everyone i know has previously bought an ipod , the nomad zen xtra was a far better value and is just as easy to use with regards to both hardware and software interface . 
i personally am not crazy about the looks of either the ipod or the nomad . 
the ipod 's white plastic look / surface does n't suit me . 
i like the nomad 's color better , but it 's not terribly flashy . 
the mini ipod 's look the best to me -- but with only 4gb there 's no way i would ever buy any mp3 player with a measly 4gb of storage . 
my advice to mp3 buyers : consider how much storage space you will need , then try and listen before you buy -- mp3 players can only fully evaluated by holding and listening to them . 
 good for the price . 
i have had mine for a month now and have to say i have enjoyed it . 
the pros : 
price ! 
almost half what an ipod would cost you ! 
i do n't care how it looks and i always drive so the size is not important to me . 
sound quality is wonderful , i really like the smart volume sound normalization . 
yes the included earphones suck but everyone replaces them anyway . 
i quickly got to use to the interface and can find any song / playlist etc fast enough . 
i also liked the fact that you can save custom playlist you made on the player not just the computer ! 
cons . 
creative software stinks . 
it 's horrible . 
redchair software makes nice software that allows you to do everything you would want to and more ! 
the front cover can pop off easily but i always have mine in the case so i did n't notice after first day . 
 great player . 
have had the player since xmass and love it ! 
pros : 
great sound , very long battery life ( i routinely play it for 12 + hours ) , very fast recharges rate , removable battery , storage size , nice screen , firmware updates , and great price . 
cons : 
short warranty ( 3 months , so i got the extended warranty at best buy ) , occasional freeze up ( easily fixed by popping out battery ) , somewhat flimsy navigation wheel . 
neutral : 
i did n't even try the included software . 
i just bought notmad manager ( $ 25 ) and file transfers are easy drag and drop , songs stored by id3 tags not by folders , needs to have software on computer to transfer files , no window on case ( nice case otherwise . 
 i do n't see what everyone 's problem is - i love this player . 
this is an excellent player , especially for the price , with features that are comparable to and even excel the ipod . 
for a price that 's still less than even the lowest level ipod i was able to get this 40gb monster , and the best part is it works as great as it was advertised to and then some . 
here are the pros and cons ( few there are ) in detail : 
look / design : 
the system is terrific in size and design , imo looking better than the ipods . 
it 's bigger , but people have grossly exaggerated the size differences - it 's only about half an inch longer and 1/3 inch thicker than the new-generation ipods . 
it 's very solidly built , and has a nice dense feel to it . 
i find all of the controls well-placed and not flimsy in the least . 
the scroll wheel is better than the ipod 's as well , in that you do n't risk giving yourself a cramp running your thumb around in circles endlessly - just a small nudge of the finger and you 're there . 
the screen 's large and easily read . 
the only beef i can raise in this regard is the pop-off face , that sometimes comes off a bit easily , but besides that it 's perfect . 
sound : exceptional , though i can 't really compare it to the ipod . 
from what i 've heard it 's at least equal . 
like others have mentioned , you can manage to hear new things in songs even though they 're on lower bit levels . 
there 's no so-called background hiss that i 've noticed , at least so far . 
interface - practically seamless . 
songs are recognized automatically by id3 tags , which at first i was against since i had organized my files by folder with a previous player from iriver . 
yet after ensuring that all the id3 tags are in order ( with the software which is actually not as bad as people make it out ) it actually turns out to be really handy . 
it 's a dedicated music playing device , anyway , so this serves it better . 
you can find any song quicky by an artist , album , or genre search . 
playlists can be generated on the fly ( which is a bit clunky but still a really nice bonus ) or by using the software , and there are a bevy of eq options . 
the only thing missing is an option to adjust the balance . 
software : 
as i mentioned before , the creative mediasource software is actually really robust despite what others have said , though notmad may still work better . 
it 's easy to transfer , preview , and organize files . 
the in-program id3 tag editing is a strong point , as well . 
it was no problem for me to use their software . 
some may complain that there 's no drag-and-drop capability , but what they should realize is that this is mainly a portable music player , not a computer accessory or hard drive . 
the software and design are geared towards enhancing the music experience . 
overall , i 'm giving this 5 stars as i 've seen nothing of the problems people have repeatedly cried havoc over , but as i 've only had the player for a while i leave room for doubt if the headphone jack , hissing , or scroll wheel problems show up with me too . 
so far , however , i 'm a very happy customer . 
please consider this much superior piece of equipment before plopping down half a grand for an ipod . 
 does not function correctly , unhelpful customer service . 
do n't buy this player . 
i recently bought this after my archos 20 multimedia self-destructed ( do n't get me started on that piece of junk ! ) and expected it to be flawless . 
unfortunately , after loading 280 + songs , all i get now is " player either not connected or busy . " 
it will not load any further songs on and customer service has no idea what to do . 
do n't buy this player . 
 why can 't it be rated zero stars ? 
do not buy this product -- 
i took perfect care of this player and still it died in the week after the lousy 90 day warranty ended . 
nearly 4000 songs went up in smoke . 
the software is not good either and the driver has trouble working with other sound blaster products , which is very dumb . 
 o man , not cool . 
ok , im writing yet another review , about a week from my previous one . 
honestly , i love this player . 
one horrible flaw , or mayybe more than one . 
once again , the sound is awesome , the batterly life is only 6-8 hours , and that is because all my music is 320 kbps which does affect the battery life . 
ok so i donno about what other people said , how the player breaks and stuff , and the headfone jack , fortunately that did not happen to me . 
however , my hard drive did fail , and i have not dropped it once . 
therefore im saying im returning it right now , and i will see wat happens with my next zen xtra ( same replacement ) . 
if that one fails too , and i hope if it does , let it happen in the first 90 days , not later , cuz thats the warranty . 
if it does , ill give up . 
basically wat happened , is that the hard drive failed . 
thats it . 
i cant do anything about it , and i have to send back . 
the only good thing about this whole process , is that im getting like a 34 dollar amount back , because of the price difference between when i bought it , and now . 
basically u can see that i have given the player 3 stars , instead of 1 . 
you know why ? 
because other people that complain about this player are talking bull , this player is awesome , it just breaks fast , which is horrible . 
now honestly , i love this player , but with all seriousness , i would not recommend it to other people , because of the breakdown flaw. and i honestly would not recomment the people of the ipod , that crap sucks big donkey ..... never mind . 
i hope my next player doesnt breakdown . . 
honestly , the best players without any flaws were the goddam cd players . 
this is all i have to say . 
 what a junk . 
what a junk . 
every time nomad thinks the file is corrupt the os freezes . 
the only way to recover is to plug the power cord and go into recovery mode . 
so if you happen to be out of the house and you have a frozen os you can 't use nomad until you get home . 
after os froze twice on me in the subway i returned the jukebox . 
 you will be very disappointed with this product . 
the reviews of this product can be roughly divided into two groups : ( 1 ) those who have had the product for a few weeks and ( 2 ) those have had the product for a few months . 
those who have had the nomad for a few weeks are mostly thrilled with it . 
the price is way below an ipod of the same size . 
the nomad is only sligtly larger than an ipod . 
the sound quality is very good . 
the controls are somewhat harder to use , and there are some oddities about the software tagging system , but most people can live with this . 
because of the large capacity of the nomad , owners can load hundreds of cds on to it . 
for most people , they can carry around all or almost all of their music collection . 
having access to so much music where ever you go is terrific . 
they fall in love with the product . 
and then it breaks . 
usually around the time the 90 day warranty expires . 
typically , the problem is the headphone jack -- it was for me and many others . 
the nomad is sent back to creative labs . 
they decide that the owner was responsible for the damage and so even if it is returned within the warranty period , creative will charge you to fix it . 
in my case , the bill was $ 81 , about a third of what i paid for it . 
like many others , i had not abused the product , and had tried to take care of it . 
if my level of care was n't good enough , i had to expect that even if i paid to have it fixed it would break again in a month or two . 
i 'm convinced by my own experience and that of many other people who have posted here who have had the same experience that the product is defectively designed , and will not hold up to normal use . 
the headphone jack seems to be a major problem . 
the one other thing i observed while i had the nomad is that the front cover , which is taken off to have access to the battery , seemed to come undone very easily . 
the headphone jack failure seems to occur just about when the warrranty period is to expire . 
even if it has n't expired , creative is likely to claim that the owner caused the damage which in turn voids the warranty . 
and most stores will not take back a product 90 days after purchase . 
this means that you will have the nomad long enough to load a lot of music on to it , and get used to having it . 
so when it breaks , as it will , you will find yourself very disappointed and depressed at the loss of the nomad . 
you will find it very hard or impossible to get you money back . 
you will have a very expensive paperweight . 
there are not a lot of good options out there . 
most people say buy an ipod , but they are pretty expensive and also require you to send the product back to the factory just to replace the battery . 
my suggestion is to wait to see how the market develops . 
maybe creative will come out with a better design , although it will be hard for me and its other customers to trust it again . 
maybe more competitors will bring out similar products . 
and maybe the answer is to buy an ipod . 
whatever you do , do n't buy this product . 
you will be sorry if you do . 
 piece of junk . 
i am a soldier serving in baghdad right now . 
i bought the nomad when i went home on leave and it worked great for about a month . 
the other day when i was listening to a song , it locked up and will not do anything now . 
it says i have a harddisk problem . 
and since i 'm out here i can 't mail it back under my 90 days and they wo n't help me out cause they say that the conditions here are not covered under the warranty . 
it worked good for a while . 
it did lock up on me a couple of times . 
and then it just froze and now i 'm out $ 300 for their piece of junk . 
 nomads are wonderful , but be carefull ! 
i first bought a 6 gig nomad jukebox ( original ). 
unfortunatly it was dropped and damaged a year after i bought it . 
the batteries would not charge . 
so i took it back to best buy where i bought it and exchanged it for a newer zen 20 gig model . 
in that model the hard drive just died one morning before my class . 
it 's nothing major , just a bad hard drive , any hard drive mp3 player can have that problem . 
so rule of thumb , no matter what you end up buying , get the extended warranty ! 
it always pays off . 
hope i 've been of some help . 
